The index is a barometer of customer satisfaction measuring sentiment across the country and asks over 10,000 consumers to rate their experiences of dealing with companies across 13 sectors, including those in the motor industry. 45,000 consumer responses were received in the latest UKCSI across all industries with 3,000 of those from the Automotive sector.
Organizations including First Direct, John Lewis, UK Power Networks, Tesco Mobile, M&S (food) and Suzuki topped the table for customer satisfaction in the latest UKCSI. The Automotive industry sector average score was 80.1 points measured across 27 brands and with a score of 84.6, Suzuki scored significantly above this.
Well worthy of note is that Suzuki was also 26 places ahead of the next Automotive brand from the full list of companies measured, even further ahead than in the previous UKCSI rankings in July 2022.
As part of the Index, customers are asked questions relating to five dimensions of customer satisfaction including Experience, Customer Ethos, Emotional Connection (including Trust) and Ethics. With reference to the Automotive specific sector of UKCSI, Suzuki ranked joint 1st for the Emotional Connection dimension with a score of 84.4.
Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, said: “Congratulations to Suzuki on a strong showing in the UKCSI. The index shows that across the country some customers looking to constrain their spending due to the cost-of-living crisis. However, many consumers are also thinking more about the overall customer experience.
The consumer landscape remains volatile with an uncertain economic environment for business. The challenge for all organizations – including those in the automotive sector - is to perform consistently well across the five dimensions of customer satisfaction - from emotional connection to business ethics and customer ethos. This helps maintain high satisfaction levels, which in turn helps improve organizational performance.”
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) element of UKCSI once again ranks Suzuki the highest with a score of 50.0 against an Automotive sector average of 33.0 and a lower all-sector average of 25.6. NPS, in summary, is a calculation of the ratio of respondents that would likely recommend a brand to others.
Commenting on the results, Nobuo Suyama, Managing Director of Suzuki GB PLC, said: “We are immensely proud of our achievement to once again be in first position in the Automotive sector of UKCSI, particularly in the challenging times we continue to face. Consistent evolution of the Suzuki customer experience remains a core focus for us and the ongoing efforts of our staff and dealers has again really paid off.”
He added: “Without the support of our nationwide dealer network, and the hundreds of people that work tirelessly for the brand to deliver exceptional standards for our customers we could not have delivered such a fantastic result. I would like to again congratulate everyone who has played a part to attain yet another excellent achievement in Customer Satisfaction”.