Which are best and worst brands for customer service?

Energy and telecommunications companies, perhaps unsurprisingly, have ranked poorly in the annual survey of customer service standards by Which?

The magazine's poll was conducted among 3,501 members of the public, who were asked for their views on the customer service of the UK's 100 biggest brands, comprising the "biggest firms from six different sectors according to market share".

Amid a stream of stories of mass complaints and billing woes, it was arguably inevitable that Scottish Power and Npower, both of whom have been forced to give away free power to disgruntled customers in the past year, came bottom and second-bottom of the table respectively. 

Also featuring in the bottom six were BT and Talk Talk, both of whom, again, have been subject to negative headlines over poor service and complaints.

In fact, the most recognisable brands across these two sectors all ranked poorly, Sky News notes, with SSE, British Gas and EDF all ranking in the low 70s out of 100 for satisfaction, well below the near-90 scored by those at the top. 

Among telecoms companies, EE, which admitted its poor record on customer service this week, came top with a lowly score of 68.

At the top of the table was natural cosmetics company Lush with 89, while both John Lewis and its sister supermarket brand Waitrose made the top six. Also featuring high in second place overall was First Direct, the online banking arm of HSBC.

The top and bottom six were as follows:

Top

1. Lush (89%)

2. First Direct (86%)

3. Lakeland (84%)

=4. The Body Shop (83%)

=4. John Lewis (83%)

=4. Waitrose (83%)

Bottom

100. Scottish Power (59%)

  99. npower (61%)

  98. BT (63%)

  97. TalkTalk (64%)

=95. Vodafone (66%)

=95. Ryanair (66%)