Telco customer service ratings revealed by ACMA

ACMA has compiled data on the customer service performance of telcos from 2017–18.

Australia’s five largest telcos have provided a report to ACMA on issues such as the time taken to resolve customer enquiries and how often enquiries were resolved on first contact.

“We’re shining a light on how the big telcos deal with customer enquiries,” said ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin.

Under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code, telecommunications companies are required to ensure customer service enquiries are dealt with in a timely and effective manner, including keeping average wait times to a minimum and aiming to resolve customer service enquiries at the first contact.

“We consider telcos can be doing more to give their customers a consistently good customer service experience,” O’Loughlin said. “The data indicates telcos have different priorities — some have a high rate of first contact resolution but at the same time have relatively long call wait times.”

The information collected highlights that in 2017–18:

• the five telcos received more than 88 million enquiries from customers;
• the average amount of time consumers waited to speak to their telco ranged from 51 seconds to more than four minutes;
• depending on the telco, between 60% and 86% of enquiries were resolved on first contact;
• enquiries received by phone fell from quarter to quarter, while webchat enquiries increased.
   

“It is clear some consumers are waiting too long for their calls to be answered. In fact, some consumers are abandoning their calls before they can speak to anyone about their issues. And those who do get through don’t always have their issue resolved at first contact,” O’Loughlin said.

This is the first time the ACMA has received customer service performance data about call waiting times and abandonment rates. This data is one part of the suite of data the ACMA collects to monitor the telco consumer experience.

Further details on the 2017–18 telco customer service data can be found on the ACMA’s website.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/JohnKwan

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