Biggest telcos lag field in customer satisfaction – Consumer NZ

The country's two largest telecommunications retailers, Spark and Vodafone, lagged the field for customer satisfaction in the latest telco survey from Consumer NZ.

Out of seven internet companies included in the survey, Flip came out on top with 64% of its customers saying they were "very satisfied" with the service they received, compared with the industry average of 47%.

Only 43% of Spark customers and 41% of Vodafone customers were very satisfied with their retailer.

A satisfied ranking shows the percentage who rated their provider 8, 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being very dissatisfied and 10 being very satisfied.

Both Spark and Vodafone scored comparatively poorly when it came to value for money, Consumer NZ says.

In addition, Vodafone's customers were less likely to be very satisfied (and more likely to be very dissatisfied) with the customer support they received and the accuracy of their bills.

In the mobile sector, Skinny Mobile – a division of Spark – had the most satisfied customers in the mobile market: 69% were satisfied with the service they received. 2degrees was the runner-up in the satisfaction stakes with 59% of customers satisfied.

Only 53% of Spark and 50% of Vodafone customers said they were satisfied. The industry average was 54%.

The most common regular problems with the internet and mobile services were long customer service wait times followed by slower than expected speeds.

The government plans to make ultra-fast broadband accessible to 80% of New Zealanders by 2022. Its fibre-optic cable network was 70% complete in October.

Of those who had taken the plunge, 65% said the installation process had gone smoothly. Others weren't so lucky. The main complaint was unmet time frames for installation, an issue for 23%.

Other problems included poorly restored property following installation (9%); damaged property during installation (6%); and unexpected costs (5%).

Consumer NZ's telco survey included more than 1050 New Zealanders, aged 18 years and older.

(BusinessDesk)