Plusnet and Sky score highest for customer satisfaction

89% of Plusnet customers are satisfied with their service overall, placing the provider first for satisfaction in Ofcom's latest telecoms research.

Sky also performed well with the highest satisfaction rate for complaints handling, and the fewest number of customers with a reason to complain.

NOW Broadband also stood out for having the shortest call waiting times, at just 51 seconds on average, although they answered quicker in the previous year.

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Customer service performance

Ofcom's research looked at customer service performance throughout 2022. It found 82% of broadband customers were satisfied with their service, less than the 87% of satisfied mobile customers.

In particular, Ofcom highlighted call waiting times as needing improvement, and despite a decrease in complaint levels, that improvement in complaints handling was also needed.

The regulator reports only around half of all mobile and broadband customers are satisfied with the way their complaints are handled, and call waiting times have increased on average, with more customers hanging up before their call is answered as well.

All providers with a market share of more than 1.5% are included in Ofcom's complaints data, with greater customer bases needed to provide a large enough sample for the full customer service survey.

Customer satisfaction

Plusnet scored the highest for overall satisfaction among customers surveyed by Ofcom, with an 89% satisfaction rating.

Other providers rated close to the industry average of 82% however, with only TalkTalk and Virgin Media coming in below the average with 78% and 81% respectively.

Plusnet also came first for satisfaction with speed of service (previously reliability), with 83% of their customers satisfied.

Sky broadband also performed well, scoring the highest for satisfaction with complaints handling (55%) and also have the least number of customers with a reason to complain in the first place.

Complaints

In line with quarterly complaints figures, Sky had the least amount of customer complaints throughout 2022, with just 16 complaints per 100,000 customers, considerably lower than the industry average of 44.

As mentioned, Sky also performed best for satisfaction with complaints handling, and they had a lower than average score for customers with a reason to complain at just 18%.

Shell Energy Broadband performed poorest with 108 complaints per 100,000 over the year. Despite being noticeably more than the second worst, TalkTalk with 67 complaints, Ofcom didn't give any breakdown of complaint reasons in their annual report, only that data included the migration of customers from the Post Office platform.

The merger with the Post Office took place in the first half of 2021, and Shell Energy Broadband complaints did start to increase in Q2 2021, yet they didn't peak until Q2 2022, with a slight decline in the quarter after.

We know from quarterly reports that the peak in Q2 2022 was primarily driven by poor complaints handling, while in Q3 2022 the main driving factors were faults, service and provision.

Call waiting times

Ofcom has made a point to focus on call wait times in this annual report, as well as suggesting complaints handling could benefit from improvements.

Ian Macrae, Ofcom's Director of Market Intelligence, said "We've asked telecoms customers what frustrates them most with their providers, and the message is clear: they want to get through to the right person on the phone quickly, and have their complaints dealt with first time."

NOW Broadband had the fastest call answer times, with a wait of just 51 seconds, although this was up from 31 seconds in 2021.

Sky, Virgin Media, and KCOM all improved their customer waiting times, although only Sky answered quicker than the industry average of 2 minutes 37 seconds.

As with complaints, Shell Energy Broadband also had very high call wait times, with customers waiting on average 8 minutes 14 seconds, and 28% of customers giving up before their call was answered.