UPDATE UK ISP TalkTalk Ranked Worst for Call Centre Customer Service
A new Brick Wall Index from customer service solutions provider Eckoh, which identifies call centre menus that create the highest levels of consumer frustration, has ranked TalkTalk top of its table for being one of the “worst customer service offenders” in the United Kingdom.
The study appears to be based off an independent analysis of “tens of thousands of visits” to independently compiled maps of call centre menus hosted by PleasePress1.com (i.e. they analysed the search terms used on the site to spot those call centres that cause most frustration), which monitors how people use call centres and reveals how to jump past some of the most annoying automated systems.
According to the analysis, the worst offenders include communication providers, airlines, travel sites and insurance companies.
| TOP TEN WORST OFFENDERS | |
| 1 | TalkTalk |
| 2 | Expedia |
| 3 | TV Licensing |
| 4 | Sainsburys |
| 5 | Royal and Sun Alliance |
| 6 | Flybe |
| 7 | Ryanair |
| 8 | British Airways |
| 9 | EasyJet |
| 10 | Privilege |
We should add that PleasePress1 also has its own Phone Range Index, which similarly aims to pinpoint the UK’s most ineffective customer service lines by weighing the number of menu options against the levels within each menu and the length of introductions (it also factors user feedback). However TalkTalk isn’t listed in the Phone Range Index, although BT crops up at no.3 and Sky Broadband pops in at no.6 (FYI – No.1 is HMRC, which is no big surprise).
Tony Porter, Eckoh Head of Global Communications, said:
“Judging from this analysis, it would appear that some mobile companies rarely answer the phone and some airlines make it hard for callers to reach their destination. It is essential that companies invest in their customer service systems as poor service is a major source of frustration for UK consumers. Customer inertia is a thing of the past.
Getting through to someone who can help you or provide an automated alternative is critical, and it is vital that companies invest in systems that allow them to respond quickly to customer enquiries, whether that is online or by phone.”
Naturally Eckoh has a vested interested in all this, although most will agree that using call centres is rarely a fast or effective experience.
UPDATE 12:50pm
The following statement has been received from TalkTalk.
A TalkTalk Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:
“We always strive to give customers the best experience possible. The survey contradicts independent complaints data, and our internal data shows levels of customer satisfaction have increased in recent months. We’re also the first UK company outside of the banking sector to replace passwords with voice biometrics, which has significantly reduced the length of time it takes for customers to be put through to a customer services advisor. Nevertheless, we are determined to provide our customers the best possible experience and understand we can always do more.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Known that for quite a few years now!
I use Talktalk for fibre, phone and mobile x 3 Sims. Customer service is always good.
There’s a lot of people who don’t like call centres outside the UK
awful awful awful talktalk they don’t like it when they try to pull wool over the customers eyes. They have never changed with the bs they give the customer as the customer is always right .
i have been having issues with talktalk for around 6 months due to constant internet drop outs and now a noisy phone line ive had 6 openreach visits and each ones found diffrent faults and after repair the fault returns after a few hours i have still got 8 months of my contract to run and talktalk say if i want too leave i have too pay a early fee why? im sure there in breach of contract for not providing the service im paying for.
Is this a record? We have a TalkTalk line that has been dead for 50 days since they started billing us. We set up an account with them on 28 July for a property, with phone/ADSL socket, that we haven’t occupied yet. They told us a week later that the line was live and we would now billed, but that we would have to wait five weeks for an engineer to install broadband and TV. When he came he said the line was dead and he could do nothing: we both had to report the fault. When we did so, by web chat with a call centre that is presumably Wipro in Calcutta (whose employees were reportedly prosecuted in January for hacking details of 157,000 TalkTalk customers), they left us a voicemail in gabbled South Asian English saying they had fixed the fault. We checked: the line was still dead. We reported it again, and they sent another parroted message saying they had fixed the problem. A curious aspect of this message is that it appears to end against a background of applause, as though a trainee had spoken it successfully in front of an audience. Anyway, we checked again: the line was still dead. On 23 September we filed a formal complaint, and this time received an intelligible call from the Philippines, apologising that they were at fault for having omitted to inform BT Openreach of the problem. Although they reserved the right to record the conversation themselves, they refused to give an email address we could write to (so as to keep a written record for Ofcom) and – strikingly for a telecommunications company with a revenue of 1.795 billion GBP in 2015 – said we would have to use an envelope and stamp. We have asked for a refund for the 50 days of non-existent service. They have not responded. The most irritating thing in all this is not TalkTalk’s lamentable performance, but the manual of non-speak used by the call centres they employ in the cheapest countries they can find. Our favourite so far (try saying this in Tandoori) is ‘We really appreciate customers who give us feedback. Thank you for caring so much’.
Called today to get my home phone disconnected, hung up twice, couldn’t understand what they were saying, finally got somebody that I could converse with, it took 20 mist to get the disconnection sorted, an absolute joke, I’m about to look for another b/band supplier, don’t ever want to contact T/Talk again. Oh by the way my last phone bill included £8. 60 for calls made, despite the fact that ny phone has not been working for at least the last year. ABSOLUTE JOKE.