Ryanair voted worst brand for customer service in UK

Budget airline Ryanair has been voted worst for customer service, with a rating of just 54%.

Ryanair has the worst customer service of Britain’s 100 biggest brands, according to a survey by the consumer group Which?

The budget airline scored just two stars out of five in three different categories, with an overall rating of 54% putting it in bottom place.

Communications firm TalkTalk and energy provider Npower both scored 59% to claim the joint second-worst spot.

Rude and aggressive service

The main issue with Ryanair is the priority of price over customer service according to Which? readers. They accused staff of being rude, aggressive and unpleasant. One said: “I now prefer to pay £50 extra for my flights and to be treated like a human being.”

Robin Kiely, spokesperson for Ryanair, quashed the report and said the airline surveyed more than three million Ryanair passengers on its website last night and only two of them had heard of Which?

“Ryanair’s survey conclusively proves that Which? magazine hasn’t got a clue about what air travel consumers actually do, because they’re too busy booking Ryanair’s low fare, on-time flights to waste time filling in Which? magazine’s tiny surveys,” he said.

Brands were judged by 3,331 Which? readers in three categories: knowledge, staff attitude and dealing with issues. They were then given an average customer service score.

The 10 worst brands for customer service

In the bottom 10 list there were several energy providers, including Npower, EDF Energy and SSE, while British Gas took eleventh spot. Pound shops and communication providers, such as BT and Talk Talk, also featured highly in the worst 10 brands.

The 10 best brands for customer service

At the top of the table with a score of 88% was the brand Lush, which was the only brand to score an ‘excellent’ five-star rating. It was followed by Lakeland with 85%. First Direct and John Lewis both scored 84%.

Waitrose scored the highest when it comes to supermarkets, taking joint sixth position, followed by Sainsbury’s in the twelfth spot. Among the banks First Direct took the highest place among the banks with a score of 84% while Royal Bank of Scotland was lowest with 66%.

Customer service

Customer service is an important factor when choosing a brand. 81% of Which? readers said it was important for them to feel like a valued customer, while 86% said they would leave a brand if they were treated poorly.

Four in 10 said they would be happy to pay more for a brand that offered better customer service.

Automated telephone systems were chosen by 56% of readers as the most annoying element of customer service, while 53% said that being passed around lots of different people was frustrating.

Long queues, staff who are too busy talking to each other, those which lack knowledge and who try to sell you products you don’t want were also listed under customer service annoyances.

Do you think Ryanair deserves bottom position? Or should another brand take its place? Let me know in the comments box below.

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