The queries and complaints that come to Pricewatch from those who have reached the limit of their patience have a wearily familiar pattern.
Mary pays for something somewhere and is delighted. She’s full of optimism about the positive impact whatever it is she has spent money on – a phone, laptop, a fridge, a holiday or insurance – will have on her life.
Her optimism is misplaced.
The retailer, the product or the service lets Mary down. Mary is disappointed and contacts the retailer or service provider hoping to have things put right. Mary is ignored or her pleas for help are rejected. So Mary tries again. And again.
Mary might try to get redress for a long, long time before she eventually contacts Pricewatch.
Pricewatch then contacts the retailer or service provider and within hours the problem has magically been resolved and a statement of regret has been issued.
That is not to blow our own trumpet but to express dismay at how slow too many companies are when it comes to righting the wrongs that have been inflicted on their customers, at least until we get involved and promise to expose their shortcomings.
And the frustrating thing is no matter how often we hear from the Marys of the world and no matter how often some operators appear on this page, we know the pattern will be repeated and the same companies will incur the wrath of our readers over and over again.
It is in such a context that we flicked through the customer experience report from the CX Academy published last week.
We couldn’t help but smile at the sight of some very familiar names appearing close to the bottom of the league with the likes of Re-turn, Ryanair and Ticketmaster all faring badly.
But before we get to the bad guys we might have a look at the companies that appear to be serving their customers well.
The Irish credit union movement stands alone. It has been ranked as best for customer service for the 11th consecutive year. But why is that?
“The real strength of the Credit Union model is that members remain at the centre of everything we do,” says the chief executive of the Irish League of Credit Unions, David Malone. “Whether it’s introducing new services or supporting people through important life moments, the focus is always on helping members and serving communities.”
Trusted: Irish League of Credit Unions. Photograph: Frank Miller
And, he says, as “people’s needs and expectations continue to change, credit unions have embraced new technology and new services without losing the personal touch and community focus that members value so highly”.
After that most benign of enterprises come the pharmacies, with Life Pharmacy finishing in second place and McCabes and Holland & Barrett taking seventh and joint ninth respectively.
Specsavers is in third while Shannon Airport, which was in the top 10 for the first time in the last report, was steady in fourth place. PhoneWatch moves from 11th to fifth while Zurich Insurance has climbed 21 places to sixth. Ikea is up an even more impressive 27 places to eighth while the Irish Passport Service, the highest-ranked public sector organisation, has climbed 25 places to finish joint ninth.
That will come as no surprise to anyone who has been able to apply for a passport online using a picture taken on their phone and have a turnaround time of less than 48 hours.
The Survey was conducted by Amárach Research over a period from June 8th to the end of July, which asked a representative cross-section of Irish consumers to give feedback on their experiences with 170-plus organisations across 11 sectors.
More than 32,500 experiences were evaluated for, among other things, value, preferred channels, how important employees are to the customer experience, how experiences have changed in the Past year, whether customers would pay more for a better experience and how good organisations are at making improvements to meet customer needs.
The annual assessment suggests that Ireland appears to be doing well compared with our peers in other countries. Similar studies in other jurisdictions show customer experience are falling globally but climbing in Ireland, where they have reached their highest level in almost a decade.
The chairman of the CX Academy and author of the report, Michael Killeen, says the main reason global CX scores are dropping while Ireland’s are advancing is down to Irish consumers’ “absolute preference for human touch experience over tech solutions”.
He puts Ireland’s customer experience recovery down to three key factors.
He says it “has been driven by a broad-based recovery, not by a handful of brands. Secondly, brands have improved their performance in the two weakest areas: meeting customer expectations and resolving issues when they arise. Thirdly, we are seeing stability at the top and volatility below. The leading brands improve or barely move year to year, while the middle and lower table see the churn. That consistency is a strength of the best-performing sectors. If you take supermarkets as an example, most brands scored solidly, which helps it outscore other sectors which have both stars and laggards.”
KFC: finger-pointin’ bad? Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
One area that has seen a lot of churn over the past 12 months is fast food. According to the research two of the best performers from the last survey, KFC and Subway have recorded the biggest falls this year, with the former falling 77 places to 92nd and the latter dropping 69 places to 98th.
Their performances, the CX Academy says, are emblematic of a weak performance by the restaurant sector, with a broad retreat particularly noticeable across the fast-food category. Burger King has fallen 45 places to joint 98th, alongside Subway and McDonald’s, down 41 places to joint 113th alongside Eddie Rocket’s.
“Across the main brands customers were saying the same thing; the food quality has dropped, or service has declined or we got the wrong orders or cold food,” Killeen says. “Many customers complained about the prices and ‘shrinkflation’. The sector fell three places from second to fifth this year and was the only one to experience a decline in its average score.”
But while fast food is doing badly, it is by no means the worst.
The bottom 10 is made up of the Department of Social Protection, Ryanair, RTÉ, Re-turn – making its very first appearance on the list – Instagram, TikTok, Uisce Éireann, Ticketmaster, Dublin Bus and – in last place – Facebook, even before the company has to contend with the Social Reckoning on its way to cinemas in the days ahead.
Killeen says that when it comes to the bottom of the barrel, the common thread on the data is that “these are largely services people use out of necessity or habit rather than choice: social platforms, public transport, utilities and nondiscretionary public services, which tend to score low across all areas rather than on any single one.”
Ticketmaster drops 17 places to 160th, third from bottom. It is the company’s lowest placing and the third survey in succession that it has made the bottom 10.
The highest ranking it has ever recorded was 106th, in 2018.
Customer anger and frustration was very much in evidence in the comments directed at the company, according to Killeen, who says tiered pricing and so-called in-demand pricing for high-profile concerts during a cost-of-living crisis have alienated consumers.
“Ticketmaster operates a de facto monopoly on tickets for major events here and provides an excellent example of what happens when there isn’t sufficient competition in the market,” he says.
We are going to interrupt his words for a moment to say that Ticketmaster has on many occasions completely rejected the notion that it operates anything close to a monopoly and it has long insisted that the market is open to anyone who wants to take it on.
Now, back to Killeen.
He says the platform “consistently put the interest of their shareholders ahead of customers, and indeed the company has the second-lowest score for putting customers first.”
Three years ago, in the wake of revelations surrounding secret payments to Ryan Tubridy, RTÉ found itself in last place in the survey. Over the past couple of years it has moved off the bottom but still finds itself in lowly 155th position, one below Ryanair and above new entrant Re-turn.
Despite this report, co-author Gerard O’Neill, chairman of Amárach Research, says RTÉ has actually made a notable recovery.
“RTÉ’s decline was the sharpest and most compressed in our study, and the only one where trust is unambiguously the leading casualty. But the pattern of recovery is the most interesting feature, and it has also happened over a relatively short time.”
“RTÉ’s scores indicate that audiences feel understood again, though full forgiveness on integrity is taking longer. For RTÉ that is precisely the measure to keep watching.”
He says that “while it’s positive that RTÉ has got its score back to where it was previously – it is one of five customer experience redemption stories in the report – other brands have moved on.”
O’Neill says this is “a key aspect of customer experience. Customer expectations continue to grow apace, and if you are treading water, you are going backwards. That’s why it is so difficult for low-scoring brands to break free from the bottom end of the table. And it’s true to say we are seeing a degree of CX polarisation between the best and worst providers.”
Cash is king: an AIB ATM. Photograph: Tom Honan
The report provides welcome news generally for the financial sector, which is the second-best-performing sector in 2026, and particularly for AIB, one of the biggest risers, moving up 58 places to 68th.
The bank is also among the redemption stories included in the report because five years ago the picture was not so rosy.
In 2022 the bank announced it was removing cash and cheque services from 70 out of 170 branches. Although it reversed its decision 72 hours later following a customer backlash, the bank’s reputation and score took a big hit.
Killeen says AIB learned some valuable lessons, which other companies and organisations could also learn from.
“Firstly you have to fix the problem and tell people you’re doing it. AIB invested substantially in branch cash services after trying to remove them, and other changes such as upgrades for visually impaired customers signalled a new approach to customer experience,” he says. “Secondly when you’re in a CX hole, stop digging. AIB reversed its decision within 72 hours, and its trust score barely moved. What customers punish is not the mistake but the refusal to own it and change.
“Finally it’s really important to lead with convenience and follow with personalisation. If you are trying to build relationships while failing to address major CX issues, you are working against the grain. Customers appear to want to be served competently before they want to be better known. AIB did that and customers can bank easily again. But the data shows that they do not feel individually known, so there is still plenty of room for the bank to improve in that area.”
It is a good report for the banks in general, with Bank of Ireland moving up 29 places to 72nd and Revolut moving up 10 places to 58th. PTSB, whose shareholders have approved its sale to Austria’s Bawag Group, is the backmarker in the sector at 134th, down 38 places, while EBS, which is owned by AIB is 98th, down 44 places.
Killeen says competition in the sector has been good for customers. “People wondered how Revolut and its ‘digital only’ proposition would perform here. The answer appears to be quite well, and it is now outscoring both AIB and Bank of Ireland on CX. In fact you might argue that it has forced the banks to up their game. However they all remain well behind the Credit Unions and An Post Money which lead the sector.”
Permission to use AI ‘has to be earned through confidence and trust’
Another factor addressed in the report for the first time is the demand for AI and usage across all brands.
A recent Red C global survey found Ireland continued to lag global peers across most AI measures, and while progress is being made, the pace of change is not matching that seen in leading markets, particularly in terms of embedding AI into core economic and workplace activity, Kileen suggests.
He says the report finds demand for AI is loudest where service is hardest. It also confirms that AI solutions must be determined by the customers’ need, not by the technology available.
“Appetite for AI is concentrated in high-friction categories like telecoms, insurance and logistics, and within those, the struggling brands hear it most,” he says. “So their appetite is a symptom of the pain, not a vote of confidence in the technology. It’s a sign of frustration as much as enthusiasm. That is not a good starting point.
“If digital or AI applications cost consumers convenience, ease and time – the very thing self-service is supposed to improve – that’s a problem. The business might have moved some of its service online or into an AI ‘solution’, to save itself effort, but that effort does not vanish. It shifts on to the customer, who now has to work though the menu, the chatbot and the online forms. Easy for the business is not always easy for the customer.”
He argues that permission to use AI “has to be earned through confidence and trust. Our findings show customers are not rewarding brands for having AI; they are rewarding brands they trust to deploy it appropriately. While AI has undoubtedly huge potential, the quality of staff remains the strongest single influence on any brand CX score – stronger then every digital and AI measure put together.”