Aldi leads pricier supermarkets in customer satisfaction survey

ALDI has overtaken Marks & Spencer and Waitrose as the best performing supermarket for customer satisfaction in a biannual survey of thousands of UK consumers.

Amazon retained its overall top place for the third consecutive time in the poll of more than 10,000 shoppers for the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) by the Institute of Customer Service.

It was followed by First Direct, John Lewis and Jet2holidays.com, while Subway and Next were joint fifth.

Eight of the 20 most improved organisations were utilities companies, but the biggest improvement was from train operator London Midland, which rose 9.1 points to score 80.3 out of 100.

The report noted that Aldi had made the biggest gains among the supermarkets in sales and market share, while the three supermarkets with the lowest customer service levels – Tesco, Asda and Co-op Food – saw small drops in market share.

The UKCSI report found that more than one in four consumers (28%) favoured excellent service, even if it meant paying more, compared with 15% who always wanted the cheapest deal.

Institute of Customer Service chief executive Jo Causon said: “Many organisations have woken up to the need to respond to more savvy, confident customers, who are clear about what they want and what they will pay for.

“However, in many cases relationships are too transactional and organisations are failing to create the sort of relationship that leads to loyalty, advocacy and sustained business growth.

“Business leaders need to reflect on the fact that customer priorities are changing. Failure to do so increases the risk that organisations will sleep-walk into a situation where the investment they make in customer service no longer delivers the sort of return that is necessary for long-term business success.”

The top organisations for customer service, according to the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, are:

1. Amazon.co.uk

2. First Direct

3. John Lewis

4. Jet2holidays.com

5= Subway

5= Next

7= Aldi

7= Greggs

9= Nationwide

9= M&S Bank

9= The Trainline.com