The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has published its Reconnecting the Customer enquiry into the telecommunications industry.

 

 The inquiry was held after a steady increase in consumer complaints lodged to the industry’s complaints body, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). ACMA found that a large number of the complaints were over the quality of the telecommunication’s quality of customer service and complaints-handling practices.

 

The AMCA found that the high numbers of complaints suggested a systemic problem telecommunications providers’ quality of customer care, including how information received from a telecommunications provider about a product or service, how easy it is to contact them, how quickly they solve a problem (for example, with a bill), whether they do what they say they will, and how easy it is to make a complaint and have it resolved.

 

For informing the inquiry, the ACMA conducted the following

  • In 2010, the ACMA published a discussion paper asking a series of questions. They received 135 submissions, many of which were from individual consumers telling us about their experiences.
  • ACMA held five public hearings in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia at which consumers, consumer representatives and industry representatives gave evidence about customer care.
  • ACMA conducted a large market research project to explore consumers’ experiences. This was done using 10 focus groups and a survey of consumers across Australia who have an account with a telecommunications provider.

 

Based on the information the ACMA collected, the body found that, overall, many consumers are dissatisfied with their experience of customer care in the industry. This dissatisfaction occurs regardless of which service provider they are with and what products they have. Some specific problems that found are listed below.

 

Common problems

  • Customers find it difficult to contact their service provider, particularly by telephone. Common problems include being left on hold, experiencing long waiting times, not being able to speak to a real person, not being able to communicate easily with customer service representatives, having to repeat their story to each new customer service representative, having calls drop out, experiencing multiple transfers and not being able to speak to someone who can resolve their issue.
  • Customers find it difficult to have problems resolved in the time they expect, especially for bills. Our research found that having a problem fixed within a reasonable time is very important feature of customer service that is driving dissatisfaction.
  • Customers receive contrary and inconsistent advice about services. The large number of plans and products available, and the confusing way in which they are promoted, makes it hard for many consumers to understand the service they are buying.
  • Customers frequently experience ‘bill shock’, which occurs when a consumer receives a higher than expected bill or sees their prepaid credit run down faster than expected. This appears to be commonly caused by either the consumer having a poor understanding of the charging arrangements for their service at the time they purchased it or because they are unable to track how charges are accumulating under a plan.

 

Main causes

We identified that the main causes of these problems are:

  • While most consumers see price as the main factor when choosing a service, the advertising and marketing of plans does not make it clear how prices inside a plan are calculated. In addition, marketing material often does not present information in a way that makes it easy for a consumer to compare it with other similar products. As a result, many consumers end up with a plan that is not the most suitable for their needs.
  • Providers may use words such as ‘cap’ to describe a plan for which the advertised amount is, in fact, the minimum amount charged each month. This can be very confusing for some consumers.
  • Products and services are becoming more complex. While some of this complexity is unavoidable, some is also generated by telecommunications providers, particularly with how they structure their plans and pricing.
  • Consumers cannot compare the quality of customer care offered by different telecommunications providers before they choose a plan and so cannot use this as a basis for their choice. This means that they are often disappointed by the quality of customer care they receive after they have purchased their plan, particularly when they have a question or problem.
  • Bills are linked to data usage, the number of calls and texts made, and call times. However, the way bills are calculated—and how charges add up—is often hard to understand and difficult to track between bills.
  • In many cases, customer service representatives do not acknowledge when a customer is making a complaint or escalate it to the right staff member or team.

 

The ACMA will publish a report that will identify the areas that the body believes the telecommunications industry must improve on in its dealing with customers.

 

The changes that the ACMA believe will help to fix the causes of poor customer care are:

 

  1. Clearer pricing information in advertisements—all providers should clearly disclose pricing information in their advertisements in a way that will make it easier for consumers to compare plans. Advertisements should no longer use words that could be confusing for customers.
  2. Improved information about plans—all providers should give customers a simple, standard explanation of what is included in a plan, how bills are calculated and what other essential information they need to know about the plan (similar to a ‘product disclosure statement’).
  3. Comparisons between providers—industry will be asked to provide more information about how good their customer care is, particularly how quickly they resolve their customers’ enquiries. We also think that providers should have customer service charters.
  4. Tools to monitor usage and expenditure—all providers should enable customers to track their usage and expenditure on data, calls and SMS during a billing period to help reduce the risk of bill shock.
  5. Better complaints management—all providers should have a standard complaints-handling process that meets benchmark standards and includes timeframes for dealing with a complaint.

 

The ACMA have also made recommendations to improve the TIO scheme.

 

"We have closely consulted on these outcomes with consumers and industry and the overwhelming response has been that improvements are both urgent and necessary. The industry should address these concerns as soon as possible. So the industry is now formally on notice to reflect these outcomes in the new TCP Code." Said ACMA chairman, Chris Chapman.

 

The authority has announced that while the recommendations will be considered mandatory, it will allow the industry to implement the changes to its self-regulatory body, known as the Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code. The authority has warned that if the TCP does not enforce the recommendations to an acceptable degree, the ACMA will consider other options, most likely legal, in pursuing customer care reform.

 

"If the industry doesn't develop a code that addresses the ACMA's concerns, the ACMA will mandate changes through direct regulation,” Mr Chapman said.

 

All information, including the full report, can be found here