Every nation has its eternal truth. Brazil is the country of the future — and always will be. In Britain, where the obsequious butler or maid is a staple of the world’s imagination, customer service is forever getting worse.
Reports of bad and declining standards of service are a staple of media in the United Kingdom going back decades. Such tales resonate. Everyone has a story about the poor treatment they received from a bank, restaurant, airline, utility company or health insurer. They are almost always bad experiences — these are the ones that stick in the mind. That is one reason why conclusions drawn from anecdotal evidence should be treated with caution.
The data, though, tell the same story. A biannual customer satisfaction index compiled by the London-based Institute of Customer Service rooted in a survey of 15,000 consumers fell to its lowest since 2015 in January and has declined for three straight periods.