Consumer Choice of UK Broadband ISPs Impacted by Reputation

How important is the perceived reputation of a broadband ISP when looking to switch providers? A new ISPreview.co.uk poll of 5,000 readers found 79.7% agreed that their choice could be impacted by reputation, while Sky Broadband and Virgin Media faired best among the largest four players.

People only need to look at the sharp decline in customer numbers that trailed the 2015 cyber-attack on TalkTalk’s website and member database to understand how difficult it is to recover from a bad hit to reputation. Word spreads fast in the online world and the more hits that an ISP takes, the harder it will be for them to recover.

Predictably it’s not just the big ticket fiascos that can damage a provider’s reputation. Slow erosion can also occur when ISPs allow common complaints, such as poor service or support quality and unfair practices (e.g. hitting your customers with too many price hikes in the same year), to become endemic for the brand.

Does an ISPs reputation impact your choice when you think of switching?
Yes – 79.7%
Maybe a little – 17.9%
No – 2.2%

In your view, what is BT’s reputation?
Poor – 78.4%
Average – 15.8%
Good – 5.7%

What is Virgin Media’s reputation?
Good – 68.7%
Average – 18.9%
Poor – 12.2%

What is Sky Broadband’s reputation?
Good – 67.5%
Average – 19.6%
Poor – 12.7%

What is TalkTalk’s reputation?
Poor – 34.4%
Average – 33.1%
Good – 32.4%

The fact that Sky Broadband and Virgin Media both have a distinctly more positive reputation among respondents is no great surprise. Both providers tend to attract significantly fewer consumer complaints (here) and Virgin are well known for offering the fastest widely available broadband speeds.

By comparison TalkTalk has been caught up in various problems over the years (the cyber attack is just one of the biggest examples) and meanwhile BT, being the largest overall broadband provider by some margin, will always tend to attract a large volume of gripes.

People also have a tendency to blame BT’s retail ISP for just about everything under the sun, including issues that aren’t even governed by them anymore (e.g. Openreach). So far nobody has blamed them for the death of Jesus or the rise of ISIS but you never know. However BT wouldn’t be the largest broadband ISP if a significant proportion of their customers weren’t at least a little bit satisfied.

At the end of the day reputation is a matter of personal perception and it may not always reflect reality. Luckily bad reputations do not have to be terminal and we’ve seen plenty of businesses recover by correcting their approach (TalkTalk is now back to growth). Often the worst thing that an ISP can do is try to sweep problems under the carpet or dismiss them out of hand and hope nobody noticed.

Nevertheless for many consumers it remains a simple case of once bitten, twice shy.

Meanwhile this month’s new survey asks whether or not you’d be willing to spend more in order to buy a house with your desired minimum broadband speed? 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).