Improving customer service standards in a regulated, non competitive industry sector (2011)

Description

How do organisations in strictly regulated, controlled, monopoly markets keep the focus on the customer when the evidence shows that more competitive markets produce the greatest level of satisfaction?

We look at the results from a joint study by the Institute of Customer Service and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) which supports the overall correlation between market concentration and customer satisfaction, demonstrating that the pressure to maintain a consistently good level of service remains high.

But if competition isn’t going to propel you to rise above your rivals or peers, how do you sustain your customer service focus, particularly when recent research from the Institute indicates a weight of evidence linking customer service and improved bottom line performance?

We investigate how one organisation, Scottish Water operating in just such a market place, has met this challenge.