Substandard service costs £28 billion per year in lost productivity

Brits dealing with customer service issues during office hours cost their employers £28 billion per year in lost productivity, new research reveals.

The poll, released by The Institute of Customer Service, analysed the impact of UK employees having to take time out of their working days to resolve personal issues with customer service staff in the last year.

Customer service issues related to house purchases are the most time consuming, and therefore most expensive to organisations, costing an average of £2.5 billion a year.

This is followed by resolving tax queries (£2.4 billion) and problems with transport providers (£2.3 billion). The average cost per employee is £1,194 per year.

In terms of instances of poor customer service, Brits are most likely to have to take time out of their day to deal with issues with their utilities provider, with over half (54%) having to make contact to resolve  a problem over the past three months.

The next biggest culprits are deliveries (44%), house maintenance and repairs (42%) and car problems (42%).

The findings also suggest the impact on the UK economy stretches beyond this £28 billion figure, with employees admitting that the quality of their work has suffered because of poor customer service experiences.

Over half (53%) of consumers state frustrations with customer service staff can impact their ability to focus at work even after the conversation is over. In addition 43% say it has a negative impact on their productivity and 37% feel it has actually led to them underperforming at their job.

51% believe their employer has felt negatively towards them for taking time out of their working day to deal with personal administration.

The issue is also impacting on employee wellbeing, causing 58% to feel anxious, 51% to feel angry and 28% to feel physically unwell.

In light of this 60% of UK employees believe there should be processes in place to enable customer service issues to be resolved outside of standard working hours.

Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, says: “With so many negatively impacted by this issue, there is a clear call to action for the Boardroom to place real focus on upskilling customer service staff and implementing efficient processes.

“The combined impact on employee time, productivity and wellbeing is a real concern, translating into a tangible loss for employers – and for the UK economy.”