TIO records lowest telco complaints since 2015

Telecommunications complaints have fallen to the lowest level in three years, according to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).

During the most recent quarter, the rate of complaints fell, leading to the best results seen since 2015.

Complaints to the TIO as a proportion of services in operation (SIO), for service providers who participate in the report, decreased to 6.0 complaints per 10,000 services for the period October–December 2018. The full report, including participant ratios, can be found here.

This is now the fourth consecutive quarter in which the ratio has decreased — indicating that focused efforts by service providers have improved service delivery and the overall customer experience. It is the lowest ratio since October–December 2015.

“A full year of improvement demonstrates without question that the hard work by telecommunications providers is reaping dividends for customers,” said Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton.

“Some of the (industry regulator) ACMA’s new customer-service-focused instruments came into effect halfway through this period of improvement, while others commenced towards the beginning of this most recent quarter. This has been a multifaceted effort, and collaboration between industry, government and regulators has been an important part of this success.

“However, industry will not rest on its laurels and will continue working to improve, and we hope to sustain this positive trend into 2019.”

Stanton also spoke to the benefits of the Complaints in Context report.

“Data from an unbiased and trustworthy source such as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, presented in a comparable way over time, gives consumers useful information and clearly identifies important trends. We look forward to the expansion of the report to more providers when the revised Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code is published later this year,” he said.

‘Complaints in Context’ is a quarterly report published by Communications Alliance with complaints data provided by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

This quarter’s and previous reports can be found here.

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

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