RTÉ HAS TUMBLED to last place in an annual ranking of customer experience.

The broadcaster placed 150th out of 150 organisations in the CX Customer Experience Report 2023, with a score that decreased by 17.1% compared to last year after a summer of chaos.

The revelations about discrepancies between the stated and actual earnings of former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy and further questions around the management of finances that emerged in the fallout have eroded some of the public trust in RTÉ.

It also led to a drop in the number of TV licenses being paid.

The new CX report surveyed customers about organisations they interacted with since the start of this year and score them in six different categories, which are combined to create an overall score.

On average, scores increased by 4.9% this year, with the Irish Credit Union receiving the highest score of 8.45%.

Allcare Pharmacy, Power City, Smyths Toys and Specsavers completed the top five, while next to RTÉ in the bottom five were FastWay Couriers, Ticketmaster, Uisce Éireann and Facebook.

“The lowest scoring brand is RTÉ at 4.74, who saw a dramatic year-on-year drop of -17.1%, highlighting the trust issues they have experienced recently,” the report notes.

Trust in the broadcaster dropped by nearly 25%, according to the report.

Among other organisations in the public sector, the Passport Service is the only one to place in the top 20 (18th), a major jump of 68 places from last year.

Revenue came 82nd, Social Welfare was 122nd, and An Garda Síochána ranked 137th. The HSE and NCT were joint 138th.  

“RTÉ are the lowest ranked Public Sector brand at the bottom of the overall survey, driven by a huge drop in their I Trust You score of -24.7%, showing the impact of recent high profile issues,” the report notes.

“The stakes are high for Public Sector customers so reassurance of delivery combined with empathy are essential to creating customer experience excellence,” it says.

“Those that got it right in 2023 focused in on clear communications, having empathetic customer facing staff and quickly addressing mistakes. Going forward these areas continue to be the key.”