Iceland is top supermarket in satisfaction index but Amazon takes grand prize

Iceland displaced Waitrose to be named the top UK supermarket for customer satisfaction for the first time, coming in tenth place on a list of the country’s top performing businesses.

Amazon topped the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, a biannual survey of 10,000 customers covering all types of businesses, for the sixth consecutive time, while Iceland’s closest competing supermarket rivals were Waitrose at 17th, and Aldi and M&S Food at joint 23rd.

Amazon totted up 86.7 out of a potential 100 points, followed by John Lewis which scored 86.5.

The top ten was rounded out by Next, Yorkshire Bank, First Direct, Nationwide Building Society, Tesco Mobile, M&S Bank and Wilko.

The scoring system takes over 30 aspects of customer service into account, including professionalism, quality and efficiency of service, transparency and trust.

The index did show a slight drop in overall customer satisfaction, with factors such as the introduction of GDPR, the data sharing controversy of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit all seen as key factors.

Joanna Causon, chief executive of the institute of customer service, said: "Retailers are grappling with uncertain consumer demand and a fundamental shift in customer behaviour, which has forced a rethink in the economics of serving large numbers of customers across multiple channels. Customers' trust needs to be earned, by being transparent about how data is used and making it easy to access knowledge, help and advice."

As of 1533 BST, Amazon's shares were up 0.28% at $1,698.67.