UK Service Industry - the only way is up

We used to be a manufacturing nation. But over the years, due to commercial realities associated with UK production costs and the demand for greener energy, manufacturing in this country has seen a sad decline.

Over the last two decades The service industry has become increasingly important to the UK, so you'd imagine wouldn't you that we'd be quite good at it. How does a country (and an economy)that relies so heavily on the service industry remain so bad at what is after all a crucial part of the customer experience!

I wonder whether you're able to relate to any of the following?

Example number !: Incorrect Gas meter reading resulting in ridiculously high gas bills of £380 per month! Not forgetting the inevitable mind numbing difficulties arranging for the energy company to straighten things out afterwards.

Example number 2: Mobile phone company's total incompetence and inability to carry out the simplest of account transfer instructions; causing the loss of a well established personal phone number despite the necessary code having been issued and processes having been complied with.

Example number 3: Water charges continually based on meter readings from a neighbouring property despite having alerted the water company and subsequently having had the correct meter manually inspected twice, not to mention having received an apology from the water company. Still, ONE YEAR later, things were just about straightened out.

Just for good measure, example number 4: New gas provider (resorted to as a result of the problems described in example number 1) decided not to transfer the gas supply from the original gas provider, but instead transferred the supply belonging to someone else. So of course the original supplier continued to charge whilst the new supplier simultaneously charged for someone else's gas! (Hope you followed that)

So these are four of my own recent challenges and experiences (in case you hadnt realised), highlighting the standards at which much of our service industry operates . I think it's safe to say that the service industry in this country has hit an all time low. It seems the UK's has no idea about service industry or in fact the customer service element of any industry.

If you relate to receiving this kind of shameful service, you should complain. You shout about it. Otherwise you'll not see an improvement. There doesn't seem to be a consequence for this level of shoddy customer service.

But on a positive note, let me also mention the opportunity here. If you're setting out in business just remember the level of service in the UK as being embarrassingly bad, and do whatever it takes to set yourself above the rest. This is a great opportunity to shine in a UK service level environment that has hit rock bottom.