News Article - 10 December 2008
Category:

Businesses should take care to pay more attention to what their consumers think of the service they provide, one sector commentator has claimed.

Firms which want to set themselves business goals may be interested to hear that Maggie Jones, chairman of the Surveyors Ombudsman Service Board, explained that this was something professional organisations should accept.

"Increasingly they recognise that it is important that consumers are empowered; they are given new rights and it is happening in all sorts of professional sectors," she added.

The Confederation of British Industry reported in November that sales on the UK high street fell more sharply than feared.

Furthermore, 16 per cent of firms said that sales were higher in the first half of November compared with a year ago, while 62 per cent said they were lower.

This is despite the fact that VAT has been reduced to 15 per cent as part of this month's pre-Budget report, while the base rate of interest has also been cut several times - taking it to two per cent.

Article keywords:

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »