1—Introduction and objectives
2—Consumers speak about their experiences
3—Analysis of TIO complaints
4—TIO complaint handling guide
5—Contact us about the connect.resolve campaign

Introduction and objectives

On 21 November 2008 the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy - The Hon. Stephen Conroy - launched the TIO's connect.resolve campaign.

See also:

• TIO Media Release (PDF - 66.53KB / 2 pages)
• Ombudsman's speech at campaign launch (PDF - 73.72KB / 3 pages)
• Minister Stephen Conroy's media release on his website
• Minister's speech on his website
• Letter of clarification to Sydney Morning Herald (61.26KB / 2 pages).

During the past year the TIO has received a consistently high number of complaints about customer service-related issues. Both the nature of these complaints – about very simple process and service issues; and their continued volume – around 30% of all TIO complaints, are the catalyst for the connect.resolve campaign.

connect.resolve signals the start of a collaborative approach to addressing customers’ concerns about their customer service experiences.

Running until June 2009, the objectives of the campaign are:

1. To create awareness of increases in complaints about customer service and complaint handling. The TIO is uniquely placed to provide the telecommunications industry with an independent perspective on consumer experience. Through the thousands of calls we receive every week, we are able to identify trends and provide feedback to our members.
   
   
2. To encourage the telecommunications industry to focus on improving its customer service and complaint handling processes and systems as a priority.
   
   
3. To promote a collaborative response from all stakeholders – the TIO’s member organisations, industry groups, consumer groups, the regulators and the TIO – which leads to:
   • an improvement in customer service and complaint handling, and
   • a sustainable decrease in the rate of growth of complaints about customer service and complaint handling, and in the number of such complaints, to the TIO.

Through the course of the connect.resolve campaign we look forward to working closely with the TIO's largest members and the wider industry to achieve long term and sustainable outcomes for consumers. Read more about what the TIO plans to do during the campaign (PDF - 71.26KB / 2 pages).

Download our connect.resolve brochure (PDF - 552.46KB / 2 pages)

Consumers speak about their experiences

Customer complaints often involve basic matters. They can be about having to wait for a long time to speak with company representatives or getting the run-around between departments. Or they can be about providers not actioning straightforward requests, for example to change an address or cancel a service. Increasing complaints about such experiences from consumers indicate a real need for improvement in the fundamental areas of customer service and complaint handling.

Read what telecommunications consumers have to say about their experiences of customer service and complaint handling - Consumer Voices (PDF - 63.94KB / 2 pages).

Analysis of TIO complaints

TIO statistics show that in the past year there has been a significant increase in the number of complaints reported to the TIO.

In 2007/08, complaints to the TIO increased by 46 per cent – to 149,742 complaints, compared to a 17 per cent increase in 2006/07.

Over the last year, ‘customer service’ complaint issues exceeded ‘billing & payment’ issues as the single largest complaint issue, increasing by 94.2 per cent from 2006/07. Customer service and billing & payments now significantly outrank other complaint issue categories. ‘Complaint handling’ complaint issues increased from 2006/07 by 14 per cent. Taken together, customer service and complaint handling complaint issues increased from the previous year by 61 per cent.

This brochure presents this data in more detail, including breakdowns by service type (PDF - 552.46KB / 2 pages).

TIO complaint handling guide

Many years of dealing with customer service complaints from a range of customers of various providers puts the TIO in a good position to talk about the most effective ways of dealing with customer complaints. The advice we
provide in our guide to complaint handling is drawn from the TIO’s extensive experience in investigating and resolving disputes between customers and TIO members.

Download PDF - TIO complaint handling guide (PDF - 1.51MB / 11 pages)

More information on our complaint handling processes:

• www.tio.com.au
• TIO position statements, which explain how we approach complaints about different telecommunications issues.

Contact us about the connect.resolve campaign

Please contact Mr Phillip Money, the TIO's Public Affairs Manager, if you have any questions about connect.resolve:

Telephone: 03 8600 8738 or 0403 601 532
Email: tio@tio.com.au