Ofcom customer service report: what we've learned

In May, Ofcom released its latest report into customer service levels in the telecoms industry. You can view the full report and digest its findings for yourself here, but we wanted to take a look at some of the main findings, and what they might mean to you as a broadband customer.

To start, it’s important to note that Zen wasn’t included in the report, so it is difficult to make direct comparisons. Although we are in the top 10 providers in the UK by subscriber size, we currently don’t have enough customers for Ofcom to include us in their report. However, the Ofcom report does shed some light on the average experience of customers within the industry, and we do have a thing or two to say about that.

The positives

First off, the good news. Compared to last year’s report, average broadband customer satisfaction has increased and, similarly, customers seem to have fewer reasons to complain about the service they’ve received. Likewise, call waiting times have decreased as the effects of the pandemic become less apparent.

That’s certainly something we welcome; but those statistics don’t tell the full story.

That’s because the stats for a number of major broadband providers are actually worse than those national averages.

Reading between the lines

Let’s take a look at some of those figures in greater detail then.

Customers of BT, EE, TalkTalk and Virgin all experienced, on average, a greater number of faults than the average broadband customer – although in every case, these figures reflected an improvement from 2020.

Similarly, customers of BT, Sky and TalkTalk experienced a higher proportion of missed appointments than the national average.

And while the numbers of faults and missed appointments were not exceedingly high, they do suggest that not all broadband customers enjoy the same experience.

Statistically, customers of EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Virgin and Vodafone were less satisfied with complaints handling than those of other providers. Complaints were typically driven by service issues such as speed or lost connections, with 20% of customers across the industry having a reason to complain. And while some providers performed better than others, only 50% of customers who complained were satisfied with the way their complaint was handled.

Compared to other industries

When the satisfaction of broadband customers is compared to those of other industries, the findings it would seem are mixed.

While the overall satisfaction rating of 83% reflects positively against the experience of gas, landline and electricity customers, it still trails the satisfaction levels of banking and mobile customers by some way.

And so the verdict might be, ‘good, but could do better’.

How does Zen measure up?

It’s a little unfortunate from a direct comparison point of view that Ofcom didn’t include us in their report, but what we do have to fall back on is our ratings elsewhere.

First of all, Zen is still the only Which? Recommended Provider for Broadband, for the second consecutive year. Naturally, those Which? ratings put significant weight on customer experience, and we’re pleased to say that we topped the table in all eligible categories, including reliability, ease/speed of contact and value for money.

And Which? also said that Zen customers “were the most satisfied by far and 93% said they’d recommend their service to others.”

Which? also pointed out that they had in fact been unable to give Zen an overall score for customer service “as not enough of the customers that we heard from had contacted it. However, those who had contacted its technical support line were nearly all satisfied.”

To be ineligible for a customer service score because not enough of our customers have felt the need to contact us is – in many ways – music to our ears!

But it’s not just Which? We’re also the 18-time (consecutive) PC Pro Best Broadband ISP, another award voted for by real, satisfied customers.

We’re rated ‘Excellent’ on the independent review site Trustpilot, way above any of the major broadband providers, and then there’s our own figures. From our own research, our customer satisfaction score for 2021 stood at 91%, notably higher than the industry average (83%) reported by Ofcom. And so far in 2022, that figure has nudged forward to 92%.

Turning to whether customers would recommend a friend, we come to the treasured ‘Net Promoter Score’ (NPS). Based on Ofcom’s findings, the average broadband ‘recommend a friend’ score in 2021 was 4, with their highest reported figure of 16 belonging to Plusnet.

By way of comparison, Ofcom rate any NPS score between 0-50 as ‘good’ with scores over 50 considered ‘excellent’, and scores over 70 said to be ‘world class’. Zen’s NPS score for 2021 was an outstanding 72.

The conclusion

We are pleased to see that service levels are apparently improving across the board. However, the Ofcom report does point to some glaring issues.

Firstly, it is clear that the customers of major providers often get the short end of the stick when it comes to customer service. While it would be unfair to label all customer support from suppliers that aren’t Zen as poor, it would certainly appear that customers may be able to find a better experience by widening their horizons.

Secondly, even in a world of better performing ‘smaller’ providers, Zen stands out. Our outstanding scores for customer satisfaction and ‘recommend to a friend’ are a source of immense pride, as too are our prized Which? and PC Pro recommendations, not to mention our B Corp and Carbon Neutral credentials.

Are you on the right package for your current needs, or interested in award-winning, better broadband? Check out our available packages today.