Customer service is the key to reputation

According to research conducted by YouGov and published by the CBI this week, 48% of consumers think excellent customer service is the characteristic that most helps a firm build its reputation. This compares to 36% who said that products and services always living up to expectations mattered the most.

Of the 1,960 adults surveyed, 82% think that companies must work harder at restoring their reputations and 45% said the best way to do this is to come clean and publicly apologise when an issue arises.

The research analysed the relationship between price and reputation. It found that 58% of consumers are willing to pay more to their most highly regarded company, with 43% saying they would pay up to 5% over and above a cheaper price. This demonstrates how important it is for companies to get customer service right. As it is customer service that most affects reputation, which in turn affects the premium companies can charge.

The research also revealed the top ten companies that consumers think have the best reputation in the UK. In order this includes:

1. Marks & Spencer
2. John Lewis Partnership
3. Virgin Group
4. Tesco
5. Sony
6. Asda
7. Amazon
8. Apple
9. Boots
10. BBC

It is still early days, but we can already draw some interesting comparisons of this research to Plebble. With a plebble-rating of 3.04, Marks & Spencer is our 18th highest performer and John Lewis also scores highly, with position of 14th and a plebble-rating of 3.25. With their website bbc.co.uk, the BBC are our 3rd highest performer with a plebble-rating of 3.90 and Boots have a rating of 2.83.

However it is difficult to compare like for like as groups include a collection of brands. Take Virgin Group for example. They have many brands such as Virgin Active, Atlantic, Holidays, Media, Mobile, Money, Trains and so on, but consumers opinions vary between them. For example with a plebble-rating of 2.28, Virgin Atlantic is a highly rated airline, but Virgin Media is our third worst performing organisation with a rating of -3.33.

There are other brands on Plebble which conflict with the survey rankings. This includes Tesco Stores sitting behind Waitrose and Sainsbury's with a plebble-rating of 0.82. Surprisingly Apple also does not rate highly on Plebble with a plebble-rating of -0.57.

The research also highlights the banking sector with 36% of consumers citing it as the the sector most in need of restoring its reputation. Plebble shows that we are indifferent about our banks. Some consumers seem to be positive about their bank and as such we have banks like ICICI, Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland rating highly. However on the other end of the spectrum, some banks are poor performers. These include Barclays, Natwest and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Of course you may feel that many of the businesses listed do or don't deserve to be in their respective positions. To compound or contrast a rating please keep rating. It will help us provide you with reliable and live data on the best and worst businesses whether they be local stores or mobile phone companies.