Stubborn inflation and staff shortages trigger sharpest year-on-year drop since 2008
Britain is returning to the gloom of the 1970s as customer satisfaction collapses at the fastest pace on record, new data shows.
Energy and water companies were the worst performers in the country as high inflation and staff shortages triggered the sharpest year-on-year drop in customer satisfaction since the Institute of Customer Service began tracking the data in 2008.
Joanna Causon, the institute’s chief executive, said: “In some respects the current environment shares a number of characteristics similar to those experienced in the 1970s – a difficult economic situation with high interest rates, high inflation, and a wide range of labour disputes across a range of industry sectors.”
A post-Covid staff shortage in everything from hospitality to call centres has increasingly drawn comparisons with the 1970s, as has the biggest wave of industrial action in years as train staff, nursing and teaching unions attempt to bring the country to a standstill in an attempt to boost their pay amid high inflation.