Firm falls to fifth place in customer satisfaction poll with First Direct ranked best

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Amazon has slipped down a list of companies ranked by customer satisfaction after consumers were asked to consider ethics when rating brands.

The online retailer, which became the world’s most valuable listed company earlier this month, had taken the top spot in the last six published biannual UK Customer Satisfaction Indexes (UKSCI).

But it slipped to fifth place, with a score of 85.4 out of 100, after the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) added new categories, including an ethical dimension to the poll of 10,000 consumers.

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Amazon has previously faced high-profile criticism over the working conditions experienced by its employees and its relatively meagre tax contribution in the UK.

The bank First Direct moved to the top of the list, beating 246 other brands with a score of 86.7, with retailer John Lewis in second place and Marks & Spencer coming fourth.

The retail sector performed best with an average score of 81.6, while transport was the worst on 71.8 after a nightmare year for train passengers in particular.

The survey asks consumers to rate brands out of 100 based on categories, including the professionalism of staff, quality and efficiency of service, trust and transparency, customer experience and handling of complaints.

Amazon did not feature in the top 10 for ethics, which was added for the first time, although it did in two other areas.

In a score out of 10 for doing the right thing, in terms of its business practices and impact on employees and society, it scored seven. The Guardian has approached the company for comment.

John Lewis, which shares profits with staff, scored 8.6. Sports Direct, criticised for “workhouse” conditions in its warehouse by MPs in the wake of a Guardian investigation, registered the lowest score among major retailers, with just 6.1.

Amazon’s fall to fifth place overall puts it just behind the high street fashion chain Next but ahead of Nationwide Building Society, Netflix and Argos.

The ICS did not publish the full list of 247 brands included in the survey, meaning it is not possible to identify which brand was given the lowest score for overall customer satisfaction.

Its chief executive, Jo Causon, said: “We don’t publish all of them because it’s about helping organisations to get better. It’s not, per se, a league table.”

Of the top 50, the fashion firm Primark scored the lowest, but separate sector-specific reports published by the ICS revealed firms that performed even worse.

Among non-food retailers, Currys/PC World did the worst out of the top 25 with a score of 73.6 due to a particularly low score for its handling of complaints.

RBS was the worst of 15 banks, scoring 73.5, putting it just below TSB, which plummeted to the second-lowest in the table after its IT meltdown last year.

The lowest-performing food retailer was Morrisons on 79.