Ofcom has published new research that looks at customer service satisfaction with the UK’s largest landline, broadband, mobile and pay TV providers.
Thousands of consumers were interviewed in February as part of Ofcom’s research and were asked to rate their customer service experience if they’d recently contacted their provider.
The highest-ranked fixed-line service provider was BSkyB at 66%. However, satisfaction with mobile providers’ customer service averaged 69%, with T-Mobile and O2 both showing satisfaction levels of 72%.
Ofcom notes that consumers tend to contact their mobile provider to discuss changes to their package or service and billing issues, while the main reasons consumers contact their landline provider are to change their package/service or because of poor line quality.
| |
Satisfaction |
Neutral |
Dissatisfaction |
| T-Mobile |
72% |
19% |
9% |
| O2 |
72% |
18% |
11% |
| Orange |
70% |
18% |
12% |
| Virgin Media |
69% |
18% |
13% |
| Vodafone |
69% |
18% |
14% |
| Three |
63% |
26% |
11% |
It also said O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone had all seen significant improvements in satisfaction levels since 2009 on at least half of the aspects measured, while Three had a higher proportion of contacts, complaints and fault issues than average.
Claudio Pollack, Ofcom Consumer Group Director, said “The research shows that there can be considerable differences in consumers’ experiences of customer service. By publishing this research we want to give consumers an insight into the standard of customer service being offered across the communications sector. The more information of this kind consumers have, the more effectively they can exercise their choice.”
New Ofcom rules in force from tomorrow will introduce an independent resolution service if a complaint remains unresolved after eight weeks.
[Ofcom report]