Virgin Media, Sky And O2 Offer ‘Best’ Customer Service

Sky and Virgin Media broadband and landline customers are much more satisfied with the level of support they receive from their provider than those of BT and TalkTalk, while O2 is the most user friendly mobile operator, according to Ofcom’s latest customer satisfaction survey.

The communications regulator asked 6,000 people, of whom 3,402 had contacted their provider between July and August, and asked them to rate the quality of advice they received, the speed at which their query was resolved, the attitude of their advisor and a number of other criteria.

Broadband satisfaction

The average customer satisfaction rating for the broadband sector is 69 percent, with Virgin Media users the happiest with their provider at 76 percent thanks to the general attitude and advise of its representatives.

Sky is second with 75 percent, but TalkTalk is below average at 62 percent, while BT’s lack of speed with dealing with enquiries has contributed to a score of 60.

The main reasons for landline users contacting customer service were issues with poor line quality and queries with their package. Sky topped the rankings and was the only firm to improve its score from last year, doing so by ten percentage points to 79 percent. Virgin Media was second in this category as well, ahead of TalkTalk and BT, which was last again.

Mobile issues

In the mobile sector, overall satisfaction is similar to last year at 73 percent with the chief customer service experiences concerning poor reception or coverage and changing packages. O2 is rated the best at 78 percent satisfaction thanks to easy resolution, good advice and the effective logging complaints, however this is a drop of four percentage points from last year.

Virgin Media, which offers mobile services through a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) with EE, improved its rating from 71 percent to 76 percent, beating Vodafone, which fell from 77 percent to 71 percent and Three with 70 percent.

EE finished last with 69 percent – the first time the operator has been included in Ofcom’s rankings following the completion of the merger of Orange and T-Mobile’s customer service operations.

In Pay TV, overall satisfaction is high at 80 percent, up 14 points since 2009, but only Sky and Virgin Media were assessed.

Informing consumers

Ofcom says it is publishing the data in order to give consumers as much information as possible when selecting their communications provider.

“When a customer needs to contact their communications provider, it’s important that they find the process as quick and easy as possible,” says Claudio Pollack, Ofcom consumer and content group director.

“Our research gives consumers valuable information about the standards of customer service across different sectors. As well as being a useful point of reference for consumers who may be choosing a new service or provider, we hope this research will provide an industry benchmark and act as an incentive for providers to continue aiming for the highest standards of customer service.”

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