Consumer empowerment 2012

The National Consumer Agency’s consumer research in relation to Irish consumers’ experiences and attitudes with regard to consumer empowerment and their experiences with customer service found that:

• 77% of consumers feel confident in respect of their consumer rights, with 11% not feeling confident.
• 72% claim they are knowledgeable of their rights, up one percentage point to the highest level recorded to date; 14%, down three percentage points, stated that they are not knowledgeable of their rights.
• 76% feel protected in respect of their rights, up five percentage points to another record high, with the number that do not remaining at 8%, the lowest level recorded to date.

In relation to customer service:

• Supermarkets and shops selling clothing or footwear had the highest level of satisfaction with customer service, both at 91%. The interaction tended to be face-to-face, 87% and 90% respectively.
• The lowest level of satisfaction, at 64%, applied to those contacting airlines’ customer service, where the interaction was predominantly via the web. Airlines also had the highest proportion of consumers claiming dissatisfaction at 30%.
• Nearly three in five consumers (57%) stated that they would stop doing business with a provider if they received bad customer service.

The research, carried out by Amárach Research, was conducted in November 2011 by means of face-to-face interviewing with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 people between the ages of 15 to 74.