A survey in February by the Institute of Customer Service awarded the consortium an average score of 80.9% - with anything over 80% categorised as “world class”.

It’s an increase of almost five percentage points since February 2015 when the consortium was given a score of 76.1%.

Revealing the results at the group’s conference this week, chief executive Gary Lewis admitted the consortium had originally hoped to reach 84% within a year.

“According to the ICS, a move up to 79% would have been good, and we moved to 80.9% so we’ve really moved the dial,” he said. “We were disappointed not to hit 84% this time but it was a very ambitious target and we know the areas we need to improve to move the dial again.”

To achieve the improvement in customer satisfaction, Lewis said all head office employees had undergone the ICS’s training programme.

Retail staff in the group’s four owned Worldchoice stores also took part, including the team at Teletext Holidays Worldchoice in Chesterfield – named Top Travel Agency in the North East at the recent TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies ceremony.

“Giving our members a world class service does three things: it drives loyalty; it drives members wanting to take more of our products; and members talk so positively about us, it drives new member growth,” said Lewis.