A recently published study commissioned by lifestyle firm WhiteConcierge claims that large UK organisations have lost billions of pounds worth of custom in the past two years, largely due to poor customer service. But a leading Shrewsbury business consultant says companies and organisations based in rural counties such as Shropshire are far more focused on customer service than those that are based in major cities.

Ellen Morley, Principal of The Business Company, says: "Despite the recession I have worked with many customer facing companies and organisations in the past two years that have been highly pro-active in examining and improving their customer service departments. Interestingly, even though they have in many cases had a national customer base, all of them have been physically based outside our major cities."

"In Shropshire The Business Company undertook a series of focus groups to find out what customers wanted from a county-based national organisation in the finance sector. We also undertook a similar exercise in the county on behalf of a client in the health sector, targeting existing customers and carrying out a benchmarking review of non-customers, to identify and support their development strategy. In rural Gloucestershire we developed a unique customer service programme for one of the UK's leading social housing maintenance companies, incorporating bespoke training, 1-1 coaching and a nationally recognised NVQ qualification. And on the Shropshire/Cheshire border we undertook service research for a growing national chain of fitness centres."

"In my experience regionally based organisations and companies are often far more closely connected with their customers. They are keen to find out what customers want in terms of service, staff attitude and behaviour, and will use research results such as we produce to evolve the culture of their business to suit the needs of their customers. Businesses I have worked with in Shropshire in particular are also keen to involve their people in the customer development process. To this end we are often asked to set up confidential one to one sessions with staff to find out how new systems have worked in practice and to set up ideas and brainstorming workshops to assist in the development of future strategies."