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Ombudsman’s Overview

by John Pinnock, Ombudsman

In September last year I expressed concern in this column about increasing dissatisfaction amongst consumers with the customer service levels of telephone and Internet companies. The TIO’s latest statistics show that this dissatisfaction has plunged to new depths.

Complaints about customer service have risen for the fourth consecutive quarter and are now at an all time high, making up more than 18% of both telephone and Internet service complaints. The category includes complaints about staff errors, rudeness, unhelpfulness and difficulties getting through to call centres or onto the right department.

Not before time, the telco industry has attempted to set itself some minimum customer service standards with the registration last October of the industry-wide ACIF Complaint Handling Code.

Under this code, phone companies and ISPs are required to develop complaint handling procedures, and to publicise these to customers and staff. This is a crucial step forward – the experience of my office is that the overwhelming majority of TIO members do not appear to have formal complaint handling procedures in place, resulting in misunderstandings, inefficiency, needless expense and often a complaint to the TIO. Companies that do follow complaint handling procedures are more likely to resolve complaints internally, before they are brought to the TIO.

The new code also requires that within the next nine months telcos and ISPs develop the capacity to collect and analyse complaint data in order to address systemic problems. This will enable companies to identify areas of complaint themselves, rather than relying on reports from the TIO. It will also make the TIO’s job easier: often we contact a company to be told they have no record of a customer’s complaint.

The code won’t address every customer service problem area. For instance, call centre waiting times, currently one of the most common and frustrating causes of consumer complaint, are not covered by the code. This problem appears to be a result of too few staff to handle growing customer numbers, but some companies are better than others at training, organising and retaining staff to deal with increasing calls from customers. It is surely a commercial imperative on companies to ensure that they are accessible to their customers.

Some parts of the code will not become enforceable for another nine months. Companies who decide to wait until the final deadline before implementing the full code may find that their customers are not prepared to do the same.

Complaints about customer service - % of total complaints
Quarter	Telephony	Internet
December 2000	18.3%	18.3%
September 2000	13.6%	13.3%
June 2000	10.2%	11.2%
March 2000	7%	7.2%

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