So many businesses do not consider customer services to be of paramount importance. Instead there is a drive for more sales and bigger profits, while little or no attention is given to providing good service and keeping existing customers happy.
This week Ofcom published data revealing customer service complaints received by the regulator between July – September 2015 had increased for telecom providers of landline, broadband, mobile, and pay TV services.
The report concludes that Ofcom received an increase in complaints for all telecom services between Q2 and Q3 2015, except pay-as-you-go mobile which remained stable.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Claudio Pollack, Director of Ofcom’s Content and Consumer Group, said: “We expect providers to make customer service and complaints handling top priorities, so it’s disappointing to see a rise in the number of complaints.”
EE and Plusnet received the most landline phone service complaints – 34 and 33 per 100,000 customers respectively. While Sky and Virgin Media received the least complaints – seven and six per 100,000 customers respectively.
27% of customer service complaints against EE landline phone services were connected with faults, service, and provision. While problems encountered by disgruntled customers attempting to switch provider accounted for 26%. 19% were for the way in which complaints were internally handled.
Similarly, the largest proportion of customer complaints against Plusnet were with faults, service, and provision, though these accounted for 30%. Complaints concerning billing, pricing, and charges attributed to 21% of complaints. While changing provider and internal handling of complaints both recorded 19% of all customer complaints.
BT, Post Office, and TalkTalk also received higher than average (17 per 100,000) landline service customer complaints.
EE also topped customer complaints for fixed-line broadband services with 45 per 100,000 customers. 40% of complaints were for faults, service, and provision of service. Billing, pricing, and charges represented 20% of customer complaints, and internal handling of complaints accounted for 18%.
The Ofcom data highlighted a significant increase in customer complaints relating to broadband services offered by BT and Plusnet. Complaints relating to faults, service, and provision rose from 20 to 37 per 100,000 in Q3.
TalkTalk were above average, while Sky and Virgin Media received less than average complaints for their fixed-line broadband services.
An increase in customer complaints relating to Vodafone’s mobile phone services in Q3 saw problems with billing, pricing, and charges – 37%, complaints handling – 28%, and concerns with faults, service, and provision – 17% of complaints.
EE still received higher than average complaints, while Talk Mobile Virgin Mobile, O2, and Three received lower-than-average complaints.
BT saw a significant increase in complaints relating to their pay TV services from 11 per 100,000 in Q2 to 25 per 100,000 in Q3. Complaints against TalkTalk remained above average.
MF Communications continues to offer the highest standards of customer service. For 15 years the business telecoms solutions company has emphasised the importance of total customer satisfaction. The company now provides a full range of business telecom services to companies in over 100 countries, and customer service remains at the heart of business growth.
“The telephone switch went very smoothly without too much disruption to our services. Very professional, engineers were polite, efficient and very helpful. The aftercare support has been excellent, MF have been on hand and dealt with any problems or queries in a most efficient manner.” – Accountants, Maidstone, Kent
“Very patient as had to wait for removals in order to finish work. Work was done efficiently and everything went smoothly.” – Furnishing company, London
Read more satisfied customer feedback on Checkaprofessional.
MF Communications offer a full range of business telecom services from installing telephone systems to providing broadband and telephone lines, a range of hosted solutions, low cost call contract, and system servicing and maintenance plans.
