British consumers want businesses to improve customer service because the majority claim to have suffered bad experiences recently.
Research by Convergys revealed that consumers are becoming less tolerant of poor business practices as four out of five believe that customer service standards have slipped during the past year.
The investigation discovered that 51 per cent of people claim to have had a bad customer care experience in the last year which has resulted in 49 per cent of consumers taking their business elsewhere.
Convergys' president of global sales and services Jim Boyce said: "Today's consumer expectations are clear. They expect good value for their money and timely acknowledgement and resolution of their issues by knowledgeable employees.
"It is more apparent than ever that consumers are willing to take their business elsewhere when their needs are not met."
The investigation also found that an increasing number of people were willing to complain if they did not receive and adequate level of customer care in order to force a resolution.
Businesses that fail to improve customer service can expect bad news to travel fast as 85 per cent of consumers told their friends and colleagues about poor experiences through face-to-face chats, email, text messages and social networking sites.
A "meaningful" number of British consumers are happy to give businesses a second chance and start buying from them again if they make a concerted effort to win them back, according to Mr Boyce.
Business author and marketing expert Don Peppers has said that companies can improve customer service by putting less emphasis on what products they offer and focus more on the consumer experience they provide.
He said: "Customers are far more centrally connected to the issue of value creation for companies than products are. You can have all the patents and warehouses full of desirable products that you want, but the only way that you can actually create value is with a customer.
"Because if you don't have a customer, it doesn't matter how many products you have, you don't have a business."
Firms should move away from what Peppers coins "short-termism", which is the view that customers only exist to generate sales and move towards a long-term approach where consumers are provided with after-sales care.
Customers who enjoy good customer service are more likely to continue buying from a business and share their experience with colleagues, which will lead to more sales and bigger profits.