RECORD-LOW TELCO COMPLAINT NUMBERS IN LATEST COMPLAINTS-IN-CONTEXT REPORT

Sydney,15 February 2022 – Telcos have achieved the lowest-ever recorded complaint rates in the latest Complaints-in-Context report, released today by Communications Alliance.

The report, covering activity during the October-December quarter, 2021, showed that across all participating service providers, there were 4.1 complaints to the industry ombudsman for every 10,000 services in operation (SIOs).

The report details the complaints received by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) per 10,000 SIOs, creating an index that allows comparison of the customer service and complaint handing performance of providers, regardless of their size.

Comms Alliance CEO, John Stanton noted that because report participants change slightly each year, the results are not directly comparable.

“This is the strongest result achieved since the index was launched in 2014 and has been achieved against the backdrop of the continuing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The continuing decrease in complaint rates for most participants reflects the successful efforts by all of industry to improve customer service. This aligns with the 39.7% drop in all complaints received by the TIO for this quarter (compared to the same quarter in 2020), reported last week.”

Stanton added, “The Complaints in Context results show that only one in every 2,439 of the services in operation among participating providers generated a complaint during the period.”

The industry-driven report is published by Communications Alliance, using complaints data provided by the TIO and SIO data supplied by participating providers. Per the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code, the participants were updated this quarter to reflect the top 10 complaint recipients in the most recent TIO Annual Report, in addition to voluntary participants.

Communications Alliance encourages any RSP interested in joining the index to contact them.