The Commerce Commission has today launched a consultation on its proposal to publish customer service rankings, as well as underlying performance information, for retail telecommunications providers.

Telecommunications Commissioner, Tristan Gilbertson, says this ‘league table’, based on independent research, will “rank providers’ performance so that consumers can factor this into their decision-making when choosing a provider”.

Mr Gilbertson said complaints about telecommunications providers are up 17% on last year and poor customer service remains one of the biggest problems for consumers.

“Telcos need to lift their game on customer service – and the proposals we’re releasing today are designed to help shift the needle for consumers.”

Mr Gilbertson said the Commission conducted independent behavioural research to identify what customer service information is most useful to consumers when choosing a provider.  

“Our key proposal is to produce a dashboard that ranks provider performance in the two areas that matter most to consumers – how quickly providers fix problems and how helpful their staff are in getting that done.”  

An example of the dashboard is shown below:

The Commission will produce this dashboard every six months, using independent customer survey data, and expects providers to display the dashboard prominently in-store and on-line.

“Getting this information in front of consumers will enable them to factor customer service into their choice of provider – in a way that’s not possible at the moment – so they don’t end up surprised or disappointed with customer service levels later.”  

Mr Gilbertson said the Commission will also start monitoring and reporting on the underlying customer service performance of individual providers.

“We’re going to shine a light on the persistent problems that really irritate consumers – like long call wait times, getting transferred around multiple people, having to repeat themselves each time, and struggling to find someone who can fix their issue.” 

Mr Gilbertson said this reporting will provide a detailed view of customer service performance across the entire industry, including how different providers compare in different areas of customer service, and how performance changes over time.

The Commission will produce this report using industry, customer survey and complaints data and publish it every six months alongside the dashboard.

“We believe this combination of measures will give consumers key upfront information about customer service as well as the ability to lift the lid and look at more detailed aspects of individual performance.

“What we expect to see from this is consumers factoring customer service into making a more confident and informed choice of provider, and providers competing more on their level of customer service, so that it improves to meet the expectations of Kiwi consumers,” he said.

The Commission is calling for submissions on the proposals outlined in its consultation document by 28 February 2023.

Background

These proposals are part of the Commission’s ongoing drive to improve retail service quality for consumers as required by the most recent amendments to the Telecommunications Act 2001. The areas of retail service quality identified for improvement are set out in Improving Retail Service Quality: Final Baseline Report (2021).

The dashboard will be produced by the Commission using an independent customer satisfaction survey, run across 600 consumers every month, to ensure statistically significant results for as many providers as possible.  At a minimum, the survey will cover all providers with at least a 5% market share in any of the following four market segments: residential mobile, residential broadband, SME mobile and SME broadband. Initially, the dashboard is expected to include at least five mobile providers and 10 broadband providers, covering over 98% of the residential market. The Commission is keen to develop the survey further by working with smaller providers to include their customers.

The underlying performance report will be produced by the Commission using a combination of industry, customer survey and complaints data for individual providers.  Initially, reporting is expected to include all providers operating nationally, covering over 99% of the residential market. Smaller regional providers could also be included in reporting as the programme develops.  

The specific areas of customer service that will be targeted for monitoring and reporting are those that most influence the customer service experience, including:  contact channels available to consumers (including features such as wait time notification/call back option); average wait times in each channel; average handling times in each channel; number of contacts in each channel; number of transfers; record keeping by providers; first time resolution; time taken to resolve; knowledge and helpfulness of staff; ownership of issue by staff; overall ease of dealing with provider; overall satisfaction with customer service; number of complaints against provider; and types of complaints against provider.