Posted: 13th Jul, 2010 By: MarkJ

Market regulator Ofcom has posted the results from its 2009 Gfk commissioned study into the
Quality of Customer Service (QoS) offered to users of broadband, mobile, fixed line and pay TV providers across the UK. It reveals that
PRICE is the most dominant consideration when choosing a new communications provider and broadband ISPs have the largest proportion of "
Dissatisfied" customers (16%), but only just.
Technical aspects of suppliers' performance accounted for substantial numbers of contacts with communications providers, especially in the broadband ISP sector. It will come as no surprise that enquiries about connection speeds generated most contacts to ISPs (42%).
Ofcom said in its 2010/11 Annual Plan:
"It is important that Ofcom focuses on those QoS issues we know matter to consumers and where our intervention is likely to have the most impact. We are therefore undertaking a two year programme of research into fixed line broadband speeds (following last years research publication) and are now intending to measure mobile coverage to see whether there is scope to provide improved information to consumers."
The most popular reason for contact in the landline and mobile sectors was customers wanting to change their package or service, 28% and 38% respectively. However, contacts about technical issues were also big issues in both these sectors. Lack of coverage/reception was the second most important reason for contact in the mobile sector (31%) and poor line quality second in the landline sector (23%).
Ofcom also included a breakdown of "
overall satisfaction" for several of the UK markets largest broadband providers, including BT Retail , Orange , Sky Broadband , TalkTalk / AOL , Virgin Media and Tiscali (now owned by TalkTalk). Needless to say that Orange, which has a habit of bleeding customers, does not do well. On the other hand Sky Broadband and Virgin Media came out on top.
As usual Ofcom recommends that the results of this research must be treated with caution and should not be used by consumers for comparative purposes, not least because it was limited to a tiny number of suppliers and acts as a limited snapshot of the market.
Ofcom believes that there is no current case indicating consumer harm or level of concern such that intervention to provide customer service QoS data from providers would be appropriate. Instead, they intend to focus on those aspects of QoS that they know are important, i.e. issues related to network performance.
In addition the regulator is continuing to examine the possibility of publishing complaints data. This could include publishing their own data on a provider-specific basis about the calls and queries that they receive from consumers. We would welcome this, although many consumers remain confused by Ofcom's role in the market because it does not generally handle individual consumer complaints.
Ofcom will know later this year whether their data is "
sufficiently robust" for publication. They will also take action to ensure increased awareness of consumers rights to make use of Alternative Dispute Resolution [ADR] (ISP complaints handler ) schemes like OTELO and CISAS.