Customer Satisfaction - All-time low!

The 2023 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) was published a few weeks ago and showed the lowest score since 2015, with such a sharp drop in satisfaction, the likes of which have not been seen since 2008. As a customer, there's nothing more frustrating than receiving subpar service or experiencing a product that doesn't meet your expectations. As a business, low customer satisfaction leads to negative reviews, increased cost to serve, lost customers and a loss of customer wallet share (CWS). That's why the results of the 2023 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) are so concerning.

This gloomy news is of course, disappointing, but it's also an opportunity for businesses to learn and re-evaluate their customer service strategies and make improvements.

So why are things looking so dismal?

According to the report,

1. Companies are taking longer to resolve complaints and seemingly not great at the resolution either

Things are already bad if a customer has reached the complaint stage. To then inflict long resolution times, poor complaint handling and insufficient resolutions will only add insult to injury. It's quite possible that staffing and training issues are partly to blame for this finding, as well as companies failing to prioritise customer care within this fundamental business need.

2. When customers have a bad experience, their satisfaction is even lower than usual (customers expect better)

Of course, a bad experience typically leads to low customer satisfaction (unless where the CX Recovery is robust, in which case we see the opposite occur - The Service Recovery Paradox), but the research is telling us that the impact of a bad experience is leading to even lower levels of satisfaction than previously reported. It could be that consumer expectations are growing and tolerance levels are low or it could signify that the industry-agnostic poor customer experiences are quite frankly hammering down our consumer goodwill.

3. Financial well-being is a factor too, those with lower financial well-being report the lowest satisfaction. Interesting, no?

This is a really interesting finding. The economic climate is challenging right now and the data tells us that those with the lowest financial well-being report the lowest satisfaction, and the gap is significant. Like my previous point, is this because times are tough and the general difficulties faced are placing consumers in a challenging frame of mind? Or are companies lacking the understanding, empathy and options to support customers who are newly vulnerable?

Ready to boot up and do something about it?

Here are 3 things every company should be doing...


1. Proactively deal with issues, don't wait for them to become problems that your customers need to complain about.

Identifying when things have gone wrong and proactively acknowledging it and rectifying it is a sign of a customer-focused company. Don't wait for a customer to have to complain, show them that you have their interests in mind and that you care enough to do the right thing when the wrong things happen. Customer value openness and transparency and are much more likely to view the situation in a positive way should you take clear accountability and action.


Dig deep to understand what causes your customers to have a bad experience, get off your butt and do something about it.

Insight, insight, insight. This action is about walking in your customer's shoes and truly understanding what your customers want, expect and experience. If you are able to identify and remedy pain points in your customer experience, you can then take the right action, that will drive the biggest value and help to enhance customer satisfaction.


Understand that times might be extra tough for some of your customers right now, act with empathy, kindness and patience. Consider what you can do to possibly make things even the smallest bit easier.

This shouldn't even be an action on the list, it should be a focus for all companies, but it's apparent, it is not. Companies need employees who are trained and supported (and given the time!) to support customers at a level which may not have been so prominent before. Empathy and understanding need to be displayed, not just in the way we communicate but also in the way our policies and process are designed. Ask yourself, are you doing everything realistic to support customers who need it most?

Customer satisfaction looks woeful right now, so let's make sure the next round of insight shows ratings heading in the right direction,

Happy CX-ing,

Katie