Jet2.com, Jet2holidays and Trivago today emerged as the topped ranked travel companies for customer satisfaction.
However, rail, air and sea travel all suffered a year-on-year fall in customer satisfaction with the sharpest drop coming from the rail industry, which falls 2.4 points.
The UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), published twice a year by The Institute of Customer Service, is based on a survey of 10,000 consumers and covers a range of different businesses.
With a UKCSI score of 82.5, Jet2.com is the highest scoring organisation in the transport sector. By contrast, 14 transport organisations out of 32 in total score below the sector average of 72.5. The national average score of customer satisfaction across all sectors in the UK is 77.9.
Trivago is the top travel business ranked, coming in joint 17th position with Waitrose Retail.
Airline customer service is consistently performing relatively highly compared to rail industry, with an average score of 75.6, according to the Institute.
Along with Jet2.com, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic have scored at least one point higher than the sector average in every UKCSI since July 2015 and Flybe improved its UKCSI score by more than two points between July 2017 and July this year.
Other “solid performers” include Eurotunnel, National Express, P&O Ferries, Trainline.com and Virgin Trains, which have each received a score at least one point higher than the sector average in the last seven UKCSI reports.
The Institute is calling on government and regulators to look at ways of incentivising higher standards of customer service across the lifetime of rail franchises.
Customers identified better reliability and punctuality as top priorities for improvement and also reported that there was a need for more friendly and helpful staff, significantly more so than in any other sector,
Amazon retained the top spot in the overall study with a customer satisfaction score of 86.7 points out of 100.
Jet2holidays shares the 20th spot with Green Flag Services while sister airline Jet2.com is joint 25th with insurer LV=.
Premier Inn is joint 28th place with eBay followed by Brittany Ferries sharing 37th place with Jaguar.
Eight non-food retailers make up the top 20, with the retail sector performing better than any other with an average score of 82.2, against a backdrop of challenges that continue apace for high street brands.
The food retail sector performed best after non-food retail with an average score of 81.2. Iceland took the top spot for the first time, while also claiming the title of most improved supermarket, having climbed 26 places in the rankings in just six months.
Four financial institutions made the top ten organisations, with Yorkshire Bank scoring highest, followed by first direct and Nationwide.
The Institute warns “survival of the fittest will be driven by how well customers are served”.
After a steady increase in the first five years of the last decade, the latest UKCSI shows levels of UK customer satisfaction across all brands peaked in 2012-13 and have largely plateaued since.
Institute chief executive Jo Causon said: “The stagnation in customer service levels should be of concern for the UK economy. This comes at a time when, just nine months from Brexit, we need more than ever before to show that Britain is a great place to do business with and in.
“Alongside tangible financial measures, trust, reputation and recommendation are crucial benefits of a deliberate and consistent focus on achieving high levels of customer satisfaction.
“The UKCSI shows that customers who give the highest ratings for customer satisfaction – express strong levels of loyalty, which brands will need in difficult and unpredictable market conditions.”
This UKCSI’s top organisations are rated favourably for measures of customer effort, trust, ease of contact, employee helpfulness and competence, speed of response, getting things right first time and complaint handling.