Improving how telcos tell consumers about the TIO

The issue

The TIO raised a widespread systemic investigation into 15 providers about their compliance with the Complaint Handling Standard.

The Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018 (the Complaint Handling Standard) says telcos must tell consumers about their options for external dispute resolution (EDR), including their right to contact the TIO. However, our survey of consumers revealed some telcos were not telling consumers about their options for EDR, delaying or preventing consumers from accessing help when they needed it.

The investigation

During our investigation, we found while most providers had complaint handling processes in place, some did not meet the minimum requirements of the Complaint Handling Standard. 

While meeting the minimum requirements is acceptable, we found providers could still improve when and how they advised consumers about the TIO. 

We recommended good industry practice is telcos playing a more substantive role in telling consumers about the TIO clearly and earlier. We suggested changes they could make to their complaint handling processes, websites, internal staff guidance and training, written communication and verbal scripting templates, and quality assurance systems. 

The outcome

As a result, every telco involved in the investigation adopted either some or all of our good practice recommendations.