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Dear Rocio,
How can we improve shoddy customer service?
Name and address supplied
Rocio responds: How satisfied are you with how your broadband provider responds when you have a problem with the connection? Are you confident that, should you need to contact your energy company, you’ll receive a helpful and swift response? Do you believe that if an event were to disrupt your travel plans, the airline you booked with would be understanding and sympathetic?
If the answer to these questions is a positive one, then congratulations. Because for many of us, contacting businesses across a range of sectors has generally become an unnecessary hassle, so much so that customer satisfaction levels are at their lowest since 2015. Which? has chosen to focus our attention on the worst performers in key sectors, where customers continue to receive a raw deal.
Take broadband. An everyday necessity allowing us to work, shop, bank, access government services and socialise with friends, but complaints continue to pile up as failing firms treat customer service as an afterthought. Many Virgin Media customers wouldn’t have blinked at news last week that the firm was the most complained-about provider to communications regulator Ofcom.
Which? research paints a similar picture. This week we released the results of our annual broadband customer satisfaction survey and Virgin Media came last for customer service, quick and helpful responses, and technical support.
One Virgin Media customer we heard from – Michael who is 62 and from Bradford – was told his broadband issue would be resolved within seven days. Six weeks, 18 phone calls and one engineer visit later, and finally Michael’s internet was back up and running. Michael didn’t receive any compensation for his troubles, but he did get a mid-contract price rise earlier this month.
It’s a similarly sorry story in the energy sector. Buffeted by price shocks as a result of the war in Ukraine, it’s been a particularly challenging time for consumers. Some providers seemingly didn’t get the memo. Our survey identified three culprits – Scottish Power, Ovo and British Gas – as the worst offenders for poor customer service.
One Scottish Power customer told us of how they’d suffered from anxiety and sleepless nights over an unresolved billing issue. An Ovo customer, April, said she was repeatedly being billed for gas, despite living in an eco-home which ran off a heat pump powered by electricity. April continued to receive payment notices when no money was owed, but paid for fear that not doing so would affect her credit rating.
I could go on. Those of us who have attempted summer getaways will know that many airlines have been known to play fast and loose with our rights should our flight be delayed or cancelled. In the last few summers, passengers have spent more hours hunkering down on airport floors than they have speaking to scarce airline customer service representatives.
It’s time to fight back.
That’s why Which? has launched a new campaign, Customer Service Counts, aimed at increasing standards of customer service in key sectors consumers rely on, starting with energy and telecoms. We’ll be calling out examples of poor practice so that customers aren’t left in the lurch, stuck in endless helpline queues or talking to chatbots that keep regurgitating the same unhelpful information.
We will shine a spotlight on the worst businesses and we won’t let up until we can see that they have made tangible improvements that are alleviating the pain their customers endure to get help with their problems.
Many of us don’t ever want to make a complaint. It’s time that could be much better spent doing something else. But we do so when we feel we’ve been wronged or if we’re not receiving value for our increasingly stretched money. Too often, getting an issue resolved feels like the consumer equivalent of conquering Mount Everest, when timely responses and efficient help with customer problems should be the base standard. That must change.
Rocio Concha is the director of policy and advocacy at Which?. To have your question featured on this page, email [email protected]
