Good service from UK Customer Service?

I recently posted on how good Customer Service can make a difference in these current difficult economic times. However just how efficiently are Customer Service departments dealing with the people they are supposed to help?

Well, apparently not very well, as in the UK we spend almost five days a year communicating with customer services by phone, in person or via the Internet.

This astonishing fact comes from a recent European DHL survey that suprisingly shows that 5.8billion hours a year in the UK are spent dealing with Customer Services staff. This is an average of two hours & 16 minutes a week......!

The UK's top three dislikes about customer service are:

• waiting times (83%)
• language barriers (80%)
• lack of knowledge (74%)

Can you afford to upset the very customers you are supposed to be helping?