#36: is your local supermarket delivering the best service?

Happy?Friday?and welcome! We're bringing you our roundup of industry news summarised in an exclusive LinkedIn newsletter. For more detail on any news featured here, check out 'This week in CX' on the?Customer Experience Magazine (CXM)?website.

This week, we’re looking at the top 10 supermarkets in the UK and which ones are on top for their customer service efficiency. Also for supermarkets, they’re seeing punishment for the ongoing supply chain issues.?

Which supermarkets teams are delivering the best service?

?? SaaSGenius ?contacted 10 of the biggest grocery suppliers in the UK to discover which put in the most effort for efficient customer service.?As part of the Helpful Help Desks campaign, each grocery supplier was asked the question “I bought an item online, is there a store I can return it to?” across live chat, email and telephone calls.

马莎百货 ’s live chat experience was very quick – with?customers’ issues being connected to a human after just?2 messages. Issues were being resolved in only?3 messages.?The supermarket giant offers its customers?4?different ways to contact them. Either via phone, email, social media or its speedy on-site live chat.

Sainsbury's , 特易购公司 , Morrisons and Asda are four of the most familiar names on UK high streets. But when it comes to efficient customer service, these ‘big 4’ supermarkets fall behind the competition.

Sainsbury’s sank to seventh place and Tesco trollied to eighth. These two popular supermarkets offered fewer methods of customer service than any of their competitors. Sainsbury’s offer just?2?ways to get in touch (phone and social media). Tesco had just?1 option – by phone. Overall, grocery suppliers proved to be one of the easiest industries for customers to get in contact with.?8 out of 10 grocery supplier companies offered?3?or more methods of customer service. The industry average score was a notable?42.73 out of 100.

Food shortages and supply chain issues are seeing supermarkets in the firing line

??? Shortages of fruit and vegetables push UK food inflation to a record 14.5%, suggesting little respite for households struggling with the cost of living crisis. New data reveals that 20% British shoppers have been forced to pay more for items. This is due to lack of availability in the past 12 months.

7bridges ?reveals just how much consumer purchasing has been impacted by product shortages. 22% of UK consumers said they have been unable to get hold of items in the past three months. A third of shoppers pointed to basic items as the most commonly unavailable in local supermarkets.?

The lack of product availability from British supermarkets, retailers, restaurants and pharmacies is also starting to take its toll on?consumer buying decisions and brand loyalty.?Almost half of UK consumers (47%) believe that businesses can be doing more to prevent the level of disruption.?Of those willing to spend more to get the products then and there, they are willing to pay an average of 11.51% extra.

Other key findings include:

• Over a third (39%)?of UK consumers are now willing to boycott?brands?that are not doing enough to prevent disruption.
• Over half (53%) of consumers pointed to supermarkets?as the sector most impacted by shortages and supply chain problems.
• An estimated 21.4 million UK adults (43%) have experienced supply chain disruption?when trying to purchase goods.

• Zendesk have announced partnership with the AI research and deployment company,? OpenAI . This collaboration will help launch new capabilities that add to the power of Zendesk's proprietary foundational models with OpenAl's capabilities. Zendesk has also published a clear set of?design principles for AI. This sets the guiding ethics for itself, customers and industry in relation to generative AI.
• 谷歌 announced?new global research?with IDC that reveals that manufacturers who provide immersive and personalised CX?are outperforming their peers in terms of revenue, profits, and ecommerce sales.?Manufacturers with the most mature digital customer journeys saw a 13.5% increase in revenue and a 14% increase in profit in the past 12 months.
• UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency , has announced it is partnering with? ServiceNow ,? 英国电信集团 ,?and? Thirdera .?They will set up a regional contact centre (RCC) for refugees fleeing the ongoing war in Ukraine. The new UNHCR RCC solution offers refugees a cost-free, user friendly, multilingual platform to access vital information. This includes emergency services, assistance, and psychosocial?counselling services, as well as identifying vulnerable refugees and referring them to specialists for follow up support.?

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