British telecom regulator Ofcom has released the latest mobile customer satisfaction report for 2014.
Overall contact
Ofcom said customer contact to mobile phone providers decreased in 2014 to significantly below 2013 (19 percent vs. 27 percent). This was attributable to significant decreases for O2 (16 percent vs. 24 percent) and Vodafone (19 percent vs. 28 percent). The proportion of contacts considered to be complaints in the mobile market was similar to previous years (25 percent), with no significant differences by telecom service provider.
Of the three broad categories — billings, fault/repair and general enquiries – mobile customers were more likely to contact their provider with a general enquiry (48 percent), and less so for billing (32 percent) or fault/repair (20 percent) issues. This was broadly similar by provider and compared to 2013. Making a change to your package or service continues to be the highest specific issue that mobile customers make contact about (18 percent).
Ofcom said almost half (48 percent) of mobile customers had their issue resolved in a single contact, which was broadly similar with previous years, with no significant differences among the providers or since 2013.
Customer service
Ofcom said satisfaction with customer service among mobile phone customers was similar to 2013 (73 percent vs. 75 percent in 2013), with no significant differences between providers. Satisfaction relating to mobile complaints also remained broadly unchanged in the last 12 months (59 percent) and comparable across provider. But, satisfaction with complaints has increased significantly (sector average is up 13pp) since we began monitoring these levels in 2011.
O2 customers reported higher than average satisfaction on ten out of the sixteen aspects of customer service, in particular in relation to contacting customer service, advice and resolution, and advisor ability. All other providers included in this study reported satisfaction comparable to the sector average.
Compared to 2013, Vodafone reported significantly lower satisfaction in a number of aspects including calling customers back, speed of answering phones, providing useful information, and logging of query details. There were no other significant differences.
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