TIO Annual Report 2004/05

Complaint handling performance

The TIO aims to ensure that investigations and decisions are procedurally and substantively fair. Investigations must be thorough and decisions must always be transparent, with both parties to a dispute viewing all available evidence. All decisions must be explained, with reference to available evidence, in a clear and logical manner. The right of a complainant to respond to preliminary assessments, or to request a review of unfavourable decisions, has also been made clearer by modifying relevant correspondence from the TIO.

Complaint handling benchmarks

In early 2005, the Council approved new complaint handling benchmarks, which cover timeframes for all aspects of complaints - from initial calls, e-mails and letters to the TIO through to the assessment of members’ responses and subsequent advice to complainants. These benchmarks are reasonable, but the unpredicted increase in complaints this year has meant that many of them are not being met.

Call handling performance

Calls averaged about 2,400 a week until just after last year’s Annual Report launch, in November, when they began to rise sharply. Just before Christmas they averaged about 2,900 each week and reached 3,600 a week in mid-June 2005. The increase meant that significant pressure was placed on TIO staff just to maintain acceptable service levels and stem the number of abandoned calls.

Throughout July and August 2004, the TIO failed to meet its service level of answering 80% of calls within 60 seconds. The recruitment of 10 Enquiry Officers during this period ensured that the service level began to be met in September with this performance being maintained until February when sharply increasing call numbers again led to another round of recruitment. This helped service levels rise above 80% by May. The average service level for the year was 77% - just under the required performance of 80% of calls answered within 60 seconds.

This year’s increase in complaints was far greater than predicted, reflecting greater industry activity in an environment where public awareness of the TIO is probably fairly static. There is no single issue that can account for this increase. Rather it is a reflection of several things including:

• increasing industry competition for customers
• increasing take-up of new technologies such as broadband and new services such as premium-rate SMS
• poor industry performance in customer service and complaint handling
• increased consumer debt
• a very rapid rise in mobile complaints concerning one carrier.

Complaint mix

There is no indication that members’ performance in relation to complaint handling in the first instance, let alone once a matter has come to the TIO, is improving. On the contrary; only five years ago about 93% of complaints were resolved at first instance. The fact that now almost 10% of complaints to the TIO cannot be resolved without formal investigation is a poor reflection of industry performance in this area.

Level 2s made up 7.7% of all complaints, compared with 7.8% last year. 2.1% of all complaints (2.5% last year) were subsequently unable to be resolved at level 2 and were escalated to level 3. The high rate of escalations is one of the most serious and costly issues facing providers as members of the
TIO Scheme.

Complaint resolution times

The average number of days taken to resolve level 2 and 3 complaints increased slightly, with level 2s up to 65 from 61, and level 3s up to 88 from 84. Given our backlog and the increasing complexity of cases, these figures are considered acceptable. The average time taken to resolve a level 4 complaint fell from 146 to 110 days, a pleasing result.

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