People Still Prefer to Contact their UK Broadband ISP via Phone

The latest ISPreview.co.uk reader poll, which was conducted between 23rd Nov 2017 and 18th Jan 2018, has found that the humble telephone remains the most popular way for broadband users to contact their ISP. Meanwhile a third were unhappy with their provider’s customer service.

Overall 49.3% of the 1,116 respondents said they preferred to use the phone (mobile or landline) when contacting their ISP, while online chat was the second most popular solution (33.1%) and this was followed by email (15.2%). Broadly speaking 60.5% of respondents said they were satisfied with the quality of their provider’s customer service and support staff, although there’s still some room for improvement.

In particular, providers would do well to ensure that they have a functional online chat system and they should endeavour to keep call waiting times to a minimum, particularly if the call is charged. The survey found that over a quarter of respondents had needed to contact their ISP four times or more during the past year.

How do you prefer to contact your broadband ISP?
Phone – 49.3%
Online Chat – 33.1%
Email – 15.2%
Other – 1.8%
SMS – 0.3%

How many times have you needed to contact your ISP in the past year?
Zero or Once – 42.2%
Twice – 21.3%
Five times or more – 20.7%
Three times – 9.4%
Four times – 6.1%

How happy were you with your ISP’s customer service staff?
Happy – 36.5%
Very Happy – 24%
Not Happy – 16.3%
Very Unhappy – 16.3%
Unsure – 6.6%

Meanwhile this month’s new survey kicks off 2018 by asking what kind of broadband bundle, if any, you would prefer to have? Vote Here.

NOTE: ISPreview.co.uk surveys are likely to receive a higher proportion of tech-savvy respondents than most, although the majority of our visitors are normal consumers (i.e. they come to this site for help and assistance with basic broadband problems / questions or when hunting for a new ISP).