Who are our customers?

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Our customer satisfaction survey asks enquirers, complainants and review customers to provide us with demographic information about themselves.

The table opposite shows a demographic breakdown of our customers by gender, age and ethnicity. It also shows how many of our customers state that they have a disability.

There were slightly more women than men amongst our enquirers (54 per cent and 46 per cent respectively) and a greater proportion of women than men had their complaints investigated in the period May to October 2011 (58 per cent compared to 42 per cent). This discrepancy is expected: women tend to be more frequent users of the NHS, and health cases make up a much larger proportion of our casework than parliamentary cases. In contrast, men tend to use public services more frequently on the parliamentary side of our business, such as unemployment-related benefits.

As a result of these trends, the majority of complainants in health cases are female and the majority of complainants in parliamentary cases are male, with women accounting for a higher proportion of complainants overall.

A small proportion of our enquirers (13 per cent)are under 35, with even smaller proportions of 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively for complainants and review customers. Just over one third of our enquirers (34 per cent) tell us that they have a disability. This is higher than the national average, and reflects the nature of our work in investigating complaints about the NHS. These trends follow the results from previous surveys.

Customer demographics

Please note that the figures have been rounded to the nearest decimal place and, in some cases, may not add up to 100 per cent.

Customer demographics
Please note that the figures have been rounded to the nearest decimal place and, in some cases, may not add up to 100 per cent.
  Enquirers Complainants Review Customers
    Number % Number % Number %
Total   1300 100 89 100 121 100
Sex   1300 100 89 100 121 100
  Male 594 46 37 42 70 58
  Female 706 54 52 58 51 42
Age   1280 100 87 100 119 100
  18-34 164 13 7 8 6 5
  35-54 564 44 36 41 43 36
  55-74 482 38 37 43 60 50
  75+ 70 5 7 8 10 8
Ethnicity   1252 100 86 100 116 100
  White British 1029 82 70 81 96 83
  White not British 70 6 9 10 6 5
  Mixed 17 1 2 2 2 2
  Black 43 3 0 0 4 3
  Asian 70 6 4 5 8 7
  Chinese 4 0.3 0 0 0 0
  Other ethnic background 19 2 1 1 0 0
Disability   1271 100 86 100 120 100
  Yes* 432 34 22 26 40 33
  No 839 66 64 74 80 67

*Customers who choose to tell us that they have a disability.

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