The Which? league of customer retail satisfaction has been published, and shows John Lewis and sister company Waitrose at the top. Customers rated these stores highly on both products and customer service, despite not scoring so highly on price.

Also in the top ten were low cost retailers Aldi and Lidl - customers felt that the low prices in most part more than made up for the quality of the shopping experience.

utellus is not surprised by these results. CEO Phillipe de Wilde said “These results bear out the experiences of our users. Many are prepared to pay more to get a higher quality of goods and customer service; likewise they are prepared to sacrifice the level of service where prices are substantially lower. There is a clear lesson to every business here - if you sacrifice quality and service but fail to compete on price then life will become very difficult.”

The Competition Commission has issued its “emerging thinking” document as part of its probe into the UK grocery industry and has immediately split opinion.

The Commission appears to have some concerns about the dominance of the main players, saying ”We are concerned with whether Tesco, or any other supermarket, can get into such a strong position, either nationally or locally, that no other retailer can compete effectively.”

This was supported by James Lowman of the Association of Convenience Stores, which represents 32,000 local shops.  Loman said “They have identified strong indications of anti-competitive practices in the UK grocery market that need further detailed consideration”.

Other commentators were not so certain that the largest four grocers should be concerned.  One of those, Southampton University’s Dr John Marti said the report had offered “not a lot” for those looking to criticise the big four.

Tesco’s CEO Sir Terry Leahy also appeared to agree, saying “I believe passionately that consumers have benefited in so many ways from the intense competitive rivalry in this industry.”

You can read more at http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/

Energy regulator Ofgen said that more than four million people changed energy supplier last year, reducing their bills by around £150. By comparison, in France fewer than one in seven customers have changed supplier since 1998, and in Germany the proportion stands at one in ten.

Rising prices and inadequate levels of customer service appear to be the main triggers for looking at alternatives. The lesson for the suppliers is simple - give customers a good quality service at a competitive price and you can maintain market share; abuse that relationship at your peril.