Carried out by the Institute of Customer Service, the study finds that the UK automotive sector ranks fourth for CSI in the UK.

The research involved more than 12,000 interviews with consumers about their customer experiences. Five car makers – Nissan, Hyundai, Honda, Skoda and Volkswagen – were among the most trusted organisations in any sector, while Honda was one of the top ten highest scoring organisations in the index.

The research shows there is a clear correlation between improving customer satisfaction and increasing trust: an organisation that increases its UKCSI score by 10 points (out of 100) receives an average increase of 13 percentage points in customer trust ratings.

The report also highlights that the sector could benefit from improving the use of digital channels to support customer relationships. The use of a website as a channel for communications was the only area to score below UKCSI average and only 2.9% use social media to make a complaint, compared to the 58% who did so in person – the channel used most frequently to complain.

Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service, commented: ‘Trust is a vital part of the automotive sector – people are putting their lives in the hands of car-makers every day. They are among the most trusted organisations because they take the toughest decisions, such as recalling millions of cars regardless of cost to demonstrate that safety is their primary concern. It must continue to deliver a high level of customer service if it is to maintain trust from customers.

‘Despite some excellent results for the sector, there is still room for improvement. Customers did rate the performance of the automotive sector lower than the all-sector average in “Ease of finding what you want” and “The checkout process”. This indicates that the sector would benefit from revisiting the online experience it provides and learning from the higher scoring organisations from other sectors, such as retail.’