Personal touch wins top award for Credit Unions 10 years in a row

Credit Unions celebrated their tenth year in a row at the top of the 2024 Customer Experience Ireland (CXi) survey.

This consolidated their world #1 ranking in the annual international study.

“Credit Unions around the globe all stand out in their CX (customer experience) delivery. However the Irish organisation is recognised as the global CX champion,” the report says.

An Post was another big winner, grabbing third place overall, while its Finance and insurance arms were in 16th and 22ndplace as the second and third highest financial outfits.

The survey paints a dismal picture for Irish banks and insurers, however.

Among these, only insurer Zurich made the top 30 with our main banks languishing around the bottom third out of 150 organisations.

“Growing brands through helping hands is one of the key learnings,” says author Michael Killeen.

”Organisations that eased the cost-of-living crisis thrived. Profit through compassion has helped consumers cope with cost-of-living issues and those that went the opposite direction suffered with their scores.”

Financial Services

Entity	Position	Change
Credit Unions	1	=
An Post Money	16	+34
Revolut	68	+16
PTSB	96	-31
BoI	101	+8
AIB	126	-9

It’s telling that Revolut, a digital bank with no branches, leapt 16 places to overtake PTSB as the highest ranked bank in 68th place.

While well-rated for zippy online banking and an ever-growing range of products, Revolut is hardly a world-beater when it comes to hands-on customer service that defined the main outcomes of this study.

PTSB plunged 31 places despite acquiring 30 Ulster Bank branches in January of the year in question, which should have improved its service offering to customers.

However, the fall from grace is possibly partly due to PTSB being the first institution to be hauled before an inquiry into a major banking scandal around the time of the survey last summer.

In June, the Central Bank held its first inquiry into an individual (PTSB’s former CEO) who was linked the tracker mortgage overcharging scandal that engulfed the whole banking sector.

Insurer	Position
An Post Insurance	22	+36
Zurich	27	+30
Laya	33	-27
FBD	36	+9
Irish Life Health	40	-16
VHI	43	-28
Irish Life	54	+25
Liberty	72	-6
Allianz	80	+20
Axa	102	-40

Among insurers, An Post is top performer in 22nd place with Zurich five places behind.

Next comes Laya in 33rd place, just pipping the two other health insurers, whose general high rating was dented this year by yet-more price hikes.

Insurer FBD was 36th as it enjoys a high rating among the farming community.

Energy companies (from a low base) saw a rise in service and value ratings in 2024, possibly due to falling prices.

Yet Prepay Power is yet again ranked first among them in 91st place despite having some of the dearest rates.

Its customer base, unusually, includes many landlords who appreciate the advance-payment facility to avoid taking responsibility for overdue bills.

Close behind are Energia and Electric Ireland, who barely make it inside the top hundred, while Bord Gais and SSE are just outside it.

Flogas is way back in an inglorious 141th position out of 150 organisations.

Its customers possibly didn’t appreciate it lagging behind some other providers at times when it came to passing on energy price cuts after a major drop in wholesale prices over the past 18 months.

Energy	Position
Prepay Power	91	+6
Energia	93	+40
Electric Ireland	98	+14
Bord Gais	104	+14
SSE	108	+6
Flogas	141	-19

Tesco takes the mobile phone service plaudits in 48th position after rising 15 places.

But the other providers fell back and are generally in the bottom third for service.

GoMo is 98th – down 55 places – while 48.ie and Vodafone languish in the bottom third of the survey.

Phone/broadband	Position
Tesco Mobile	48	+15
GoMo	98	-55
48.ie	112	-4
Vodafone	134	-1
Eir	146	-3

The rest of the study gives an insight into the priorities and experiences of Irish customers for general products and services.

Life Pharmacy ranks second overall (one of three chemists in the top ten).

The study says: “Their online health service innovations and home deliveries are incredibly convenient and frictionless. Staff are committed to dealing with customers in a human way.”

An Post was third and in fourth place was Shannon Airport, which is a little surprising given that three quarters of the country would rarely if ever pass through it.  It was praised in the survey for “continuous innovations like the world’s first Duty-Free shop, Europe’s first airport autism sensory room, and recognition as one of only two airports globally awarded ‘Age Friendly’ status by the World Health Organisation.”

Dunnes Stores are in an exalted fifth place overall, well ahead of any other supermarket. Two other pharmacies – Hickeys and McCabes – plus Eason, Specsavers and Dunnes Stores Retail rounded out the Top Ten.

When it comes to sectors, supermarkets maintained top spot for a fifth

consecutive year. After Dunnes came Aldi, M&S (food), SuperValu and then Lidl and Tesco in joint fifth place among the supermarkets.

Spar, Centra, Londis, and Mace are ranked in that order and have slipped down the rankings compared to 2023, although all are in the top 50, apart from Mace (52).

When it comes to burgers, we like our brands to local. Supermacs (23) ranks way higher up the list than Burgerking (53) or McDonalds (72).

Ticketmaster was up four places to 143 despite ongoing dynamic pricing controversies, although this survey preceded the latest one over Oasis tickets.

Aer Lingus is fast losing its reputational lead on Ryanair for service.

Ryanair is up 6 to 138 while Aer Lingus is down 41 places to 123, probably due to the survey coinciding with news of a spate of cancellations in this summer’s pilot’s strike.

Sky swapped places with Virgin, who are ‘neck and neck’ in 139th and 140th places. 

RTE is starting to climb the rankings again – up five - though only from the very bottom of the table.

It’s in 145th place now, just one place above Eir, which has been ‘in the reputational doghouse for years over well-flagged service issues.

The overall position of digital giants doesn’t suggest a strong record on service.

Facebook comes last (150th) with its social media sister firm Instagram just three places above, while Google ranks just one place above RTE (oh, the shame!).

TikTok doesn’t cover itself in glory either in 130th, although it is a new entry.

And relative positions on this study need not reflect an organisation’s overall worth to society.

Long waiting lists, delays in A&E care and negative publicity when things go wrong have taken a reputational toll on the HSE, which is rated at only 135th in the survey, up three from last year.

That move places it just ahead of Disney+.

Yet being valued a little more than Disney staples like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves will be scant consolation to 143,000 doctors, nurses and other staff who do such dedicated work to keep us alive and healthy!

Another aspect of the survey is that Irish organisations are achieving lower overall scores compared to ten years earlier when it comes to keeping customers happy. Our collective performance is 6.7% for 2024 compared to 7.06 a decade ago.

Methodology

The CXi Survey conducted by Amárach Research ran from the 8th June to the 30th July 2024. A  cross section of Irish consumers was asked about their experiences with 150+ companies.