First Direct has topped a customer service poll of the UK’s biggest 100 brands.
The online bank scored a whopping 87% in the survey by Which? It overtook last year’s winner Lush, which took second place with 86%.
The top brands
Each brand was rated on how successful it was at making its customers feel valued, knowledge of products and services, helpfulness of staff, resolving problems or complaints and access to customer support. Respondents were also asked to give each brand an overall score out of ten, which is where the final score comes from.
First Direct has built its brand on its excellent levels of customer service, which is perhaps why it wins every gong going – including our own Lovemoney Award last year.
Indeed, the bank is so confident that you will love its 1st Account and the service you receive that not only will it pay you £100 as a welcome present when you open the account, but it will pay you another £100 if you decide to leave after a year.
While the 1st Account doesn’t pay interest, it does come with a £250 fee-free overdraft.
Top 10 brands
Here’s how the top 10 table of the best brands for customer service looks.
|
Position |
Brand |
Score |
|
1 |
First Direct |
87% |
|
2 |
Lush |
86% |
|
3= |
John Lewis |
83% |
|
3= |
Lakeland |
83% |
|
3= |
Waitrose |
83% |
|
6 |
Specsavers |
82% |
|
7 |
Waterstones |
81% |
|
8 |
Green Flag |
80% |
|
9= |
Amazon |
79% |
|
9= |
American Express |
79% |
|
9= |
Game |
79% |
|
9= |
Lloyds Pharmacy |
79% |
|
9= |
Marks & Spencer |
79% |
The worst brands
Npower has been identified as the worst of the biggest 100 brands for customer service.
The energy company took bottom spot, ahead of Scottish Power and last year’s lowest-ranked brand Ryanair.
Npower has had a disastrous year, with energy regulator Ofgem forced to threaten the firm with a telesales ban if it did not make progress on resolving outstanding late bills. This followed it donating £1 million to its own crisis fund, which helps vulnerable customers, as an apology for significant billing problems.
Scottish Power has had its own billing issues, and is the biggest faller in this year’s survey, dropping from 62nd place last year to 99th this year.
Ryanair is at least off the bottom following steps to improve its service, including launching a business class offering, but there is still evidently a long way to go.
Here’s how the bottom of the table shapes up.
|
Position |
Brand |
Score |
|
91= |
Co-operative Food |
66% |
|
91= |
TK Maxx |
66% |
|
93 |
99p Stores |
65% |
|
94= |
BT |
64% |
|
94= |
EE |
64% |
|
94= |
SSE |
64% |
|
97 |
TalkTalk |
63% |
|
98 |
Ryanair |
59% |
|
99 |
Scottish Power |
58% |
|
100 |
Npower |
57% |
If you’re sick of poor service from your energy supplier, don’t just put up with it, switch! You can check out the best tariffs available in your area with the lovemoney.com energy comparison centre.
How the banks performed
First Direct may have topped the poll, but there aren’t too many other banks and building societies near the top of the table. The Co-operative's smile is in 14th, Nationwide takes joint 19th spot alongside Apple and Clarks with 77%, with TSB in joint 22nd spot, while Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank share 36th place.
After that, it makes for fairly grim reading with Barclays, the Co-operative Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Yorkshire Bank all in joint 60th place, and NatWest and Santander in joint 70th
Fed up with your bank? Compare current accounts and see if you could get a better deal