MIXED RESULTS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Sydney, 7 July 2017 – The latest Telecommunications Customer Satisfaction Survey has produced mixed results, with some key satisfaction metrics remaining steady, but some metrics highlighting areas for industry improvement.

The quarterly national survey, carried out for Communications Alliance by Roy Morgan Research, shows that overall satisfaction with customer service has decreased from last quarter, with 77% of customers reporting they are satisfied/neutral with the level of service provided, in comparison to 80% in the previous survey.

The survey, conducted in June 2017, comes amid a challenging time for industry and consumers, as customer migration to nbn-based services gathers pace and the sharply rising demand for streamed and downloaded video content puts additional pressure on some types of services.

This is the fifteenth wave in an ongoing quarterly survey series designed to measure the overall experience of Australian telco customers – particularly in relation to key customer ‘touch points’ covered by the revised Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code 2015.

The Wave 15 survey results show that customer satisfaction with ease of contacting their provider remains steady at 74% reporting they are satisfied/neutral. Additionally, the proportion of customers satisfied with the ease of understanding their bill has remained fairly steady across previous surveys, with 83% reporting they are satisfied/neutral in the most recent survey, compared to 86%, 84%, and 82% in the prior three quarters.

However, customer satisfaction with complaint handling has continued to decrease, with 60% of customers satisfied or neutral with how their complaints had been handled. This is fairly steady from the prior quarter, at 61%, but a decrease from the previous two quarters where 66% of customers had reported they were satisfied/neutral.

Customer satisfaction with the information provided on telecommunications products remains high at 82% satisfied/neutral, but this is a slight dip from the previous quarter’s high point of 88%.

Industry is engaging in ongoing discussions on strategies to improve customer service and satisfaction across products.

The full survey results are available at the following link.