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Why Zen topped the Which? Value for Money table (and three other five star scores)

Zen Apr 12 2024 5 minutes

In March, Zen was named the ONLY Which? Recommended Provider for the fourth consecutive year. But there’s more to it than that headline alone.

Because the categories that Zen achieved five stars in tell a story of a provider committed to putting people first, to a better way of doing business, that holds fast to the principle that happy customers ensure success.

So let’s take a closer look at the categories that earned Zen the maximum star rating: Value for Money, Connection Speed, Customer Service, and Technical Support.

Value for Money – five stars

In the Which? survey, 85% of our customers rated us highly for value for money, and here’s why.

We know we’re not the ‘cheapest’ provider, and we’re ok with that, because cheap usually brings compromises. But with Zen, you get what you pay for.

Sure, you might not find those ‘headline’ special offers that other providers seem so keen about. You know the ones: ‘save 50% for the first six months’ or something similar. The problem with those offers is that they usually come with catches. Like the fact that after the introductory period you’ll be paying full price. Ok, not too bad. But what about the annual inflation-linked price rises that crank your bills up every 12 months. Or the fact that many of these providers don’t provide good enough service or support.

Zen’s offer is simple. The price you see is the price you pay. For your entire contract. That’s thanks to our Contract Price Promise, which is our guarantee of no price rises for your entire broadband contract. When you’re not having your price ramped up constantly, after a while that headline price doesn’t seem too bad.

Which? says we’ve “firmly resisted the industry trend of introducing sneaky price rises”, and while that’s true, it really wasn’t hard for us to go against that unfair practice because, well, just that. We think it’s unfair.

So there’s price, but there are also some other elements that contribute to what makes a service value for money, and that leads us into the other categories that Zen achieved five stars in.

Connection Speed – five stars

Did you know that Zen installed its first fibre broadband service in 2010?

We’ve been committed to providing the fastest available broadband for many years (and many years before other providers), because we believe in giving customers access to the best connections they can get.

But there’s more to a good connection speed than the wires that enter your home. At our end there are all kinds of decisions that need to be taken to help keep your connection running as smoothly as possible. Like our position around bandwidth throttling for example. While some other providers might slow their users down at peak times, we’re committed to ensuring that you have the best possible connection all the time.

Then there’s the capacity of our network. Unsurprisingly, internet traffic isn’t constant. It goes up and down as popular games are released, large sporting events take place, and streaming services make new content available. If a network doesn’t have sufficient headroom, customers might encounter congestion during these popular periods. But our network is built to take account of these peaks in usage, to keep connections smooth even during the busiest times.

In our customers’ homes, we provide a host of equipment that helps to maximise connection speed. From our FRITZ!Box routers to our Zen EveryRoom mesh WiFi service, it’s all about providing smooth connections that help you squeeze every available megabit from your bandwidth.

Customer Service & Technical Support – five stars

We’ve bundled these two categories because, for us, they’re really two sides of the same coin.

Our commitment to service starts with our most fundamental long-term objectives: Happy Staff, Happy Customers, Happy Suppliers.

Throughout the Zen journey, it’s those principles that have guided pretty much everything we do. And while that middle objective, Happy Customers, seems most appropriate here, in fact the secret to the success of these principles is that they all work together.

Take the Happy Staff objective, for example. It’s easy to understand how happy staff can make happy customers. When our people are valued, treated well, and love their jobs, that’s reflected in the service they provide.

We’re a Best Workplaces™️ Great Place to Work® 2024. In the survey, 85% of our people said that Zen is a great place to work, compared with 54% in the typical UK based company, and the number of staff who’ve been with us for ten years or more stands way above many other businesses.

We’re also a certified B Corp, part of a growing global community using business as a force for good for our people, our customers and the planet.

And the reason we make these points? When we say we’re people-first, that’s not just a slogan. It’s not just words to us… it’s the absolute truth. And that people first commitment naturally extends to our customers too.

Our customer service and technical support teams are empowered to put people first in every interaction, always encouraged to go above and beyond, to help resolve even the most complex query, to speak to customers like people not statistics, to never ‘over sell’ and always put the customer’s needs first. Do we always get it right? No. But we’re committed to doing better every single day, to providing a first-class service every single time. And our customers appreciate that. Which is why Which? awarded us five stars in these two categories as well as Value for Money, because like we said right at the start, with Zen you get what you pay for.