Last week, YourLifeChoices reported on a rise in complaints about customer service across Australia. Many of those complaints were directed at telcos. Now the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has released a report highlighting the significant number of customers not complaining to telcos.
This may seem to contradict last week’s story, but a deeper dive into the report reveals otherwise. A TIO statement accompanying the report provides a clue: “There is a significant loss of trust across Australia in the ability of telcos to fix phone and internet problems when they occur.”
The statement continues: “Many people don’t raise complaints with their telco, and for those who do, the process is lengthy and frustrating.”
There’s a clear inference here. Complaints to the telcos themselves are lower than might be expected because customers don’t believe they’ll achieve an adequate resolution.
These findings are quite damning, highlighted by three points made in the TIO’s release statement. They were:
- 55 per cent of Australians encountered at least one challenge with their telco services in the past 12 months
- 76 per cent of Australians faced a financial or non-financial difficulty in the past 12 months
- 40 per cent of people who didn’t make a complaint said they didn’t believe their complaint would make a difference.
Anatomy of telco non-complaints
A closer examination of the TIO’s 18-page report breaks down the reasons for those facing challenges not making a complaint. Disturbingly, it found that “77 per cent of complaints were not made because the individual was sceptical or overwhelmed.”
The breakdown of reasons was as follows:
| I didn’t think it would make any difference | 40 per cent |
| I didn’t have time to | 14 per cent |
| I didn’t know how to / where to start | 13 per cent |
| It didn’t require an intervention / the issue resolved itself | 9 per cent |
| The process was overwhelming | 7 per cent |
| The provider fixed the issue before I needed to complain | 6 per cent |
| I needed help to make a complaint, but help wasn’t available | 3 per cent |
| The provider compensated me | 2 per cent |
| I changed providers instead | 2 per cent |
The numbers above are damning in and of themselves. However, by its very nature, raw data does not convey the individual frustrations of telco customers. One of the participants in the TIO survey revealed reasons with which many would probably identify.
“I feel like it [a complaint] would fall on deaf ears. I cannot talk to my telco provider over the phone, and it takes approximately two hours of back and forth communication on the app to discuss simple matters.”
My own experience lines up with that customer’s. When I had an issue with my own telco I engaged in several online chats before it was resolved. Each of these entailed repeating previously provided statements and details, which should have been in front of the telco representative.
In for the long haul
My own experience was that it took around three months to have my issue resolved. I thought – and still think – that was far too long, but the TIO report shows my resolution could have taken far longer.
“More than a fifth experienced unresolved or lengthy resolution times of more than 30 days (23 per cent),” the report stated. Some respondents had been trying to get a resolution for “up to 260 days at the time of survey”.
That’s clearly unacceptable. It also goes a long way to explaining why customers choose not to complain in the first place. Cynical customers might be tempted to conclude that this is all part of the design of telco organisations. It also brings new meaning to the old idiom, ‘Can’t complain’. Sometimes it feels as if telco customer service processes are structured so you literally can’t complain!
The existence of the TIO is clearly a good thing in many respects. My own issue was only resolved after I advised my telco I would be formally complaining to the TIO. After three months of frustration, my issue was suddenly resolved within 24 hours!
The telco ombudsman’s brand awareness problem
Despite the good work it can do, the TIO acknowledged one of its own shortcomings in the report. Looking across the general population, the TIO appears to have falling levels of awareness. “Unprompted awareness of an ombudsman as an avenue for telco complaints was low (21 per cent).” This was down from 34 per cent only two years earlier. Furthermore, only 9 per cent of respondents correctly identified the TIO / ‘Telco Ombudsman’ spontaneously by name.
So, if you’re one of the many Australians fed up with poor telco customer service, here is the link to the TIO website. It might be well worth bookmarking for the next time you run into a telco brick wall. And even the mere mention of the TIO could bring you a faster resolution.
Have you had to make a complaint to a telco recently? How would you describe the experience? Let us know via the comments section below.
Also read: On hold and on edge – the scourge of calling big companies
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