When choosing a new broadband provider, the first things you’ll probably look at are price, speed and usage or download limits. But one factor that’s often hard to gauge in advance is customer service.
If there is a problem with your broadband connection, or you have a query about your bill, good customer service will mean that your concerns are addressed quickly and efficiently, making your overall provider experience much better.
Note: We've got a few quick fixes that may help you if you’re experiencing internet connection problems, but if you’ve already tried these and can’t fix the problem yourself, it’s time to get in touch with your provider’s customer service team.
What is good customer service for broadband?
Customer service includes any point of contact you have with your internet service provider, and it falls on them to help answer your concerns as effectively as possible. A big part of that is having knowledgeable customer care staff that can answer your questions quickly and in detail, either by phone, email or live chat.
Ultimately, good customer service means that you can trust your internet service provider. If you’re able to contact them when needed and discuss any concerns or queries, you’re more likely to feel valued as a customer.
How good is my broadband provider’s customer service?
Here are a few things to consider when deciding how good your broadband provider’s customer service is:
Finding contact details
Are you able to find your provider’s contact details easily? If they’re hidden or hard to find then the whole process of contacting your provider takes longer and is more stressful than it should be.
Call wait times
Telephone is still the most popular way of contacting providers (85% of customer contacts are via telephone according to Ofcom). Having to wait an hour on hold just to speak to someone about your latest bill would hardly qualify as good customer service.
Getting through to the right team
Is it easy to get connected with the right department? Are there endless confusing options to get through before you even get to speak to someone, and is that the right person to deal with your query?
Complaints handling
How well is your complaint handled once you get through to someone? Was the customer service rep knowledgeable and understanding? Did they actually help to ease or resolve your issue?
Politeness of customer service staff
This is an obvious one. If the customer service staff are rude, you wouldn’t exactly call that good service, would you?
Complaint resolution
Were you able to actually get your problem resolved? If the customer service team isn't able to help you directly, do they arrange the support you need from another department?
For example, if an engineer visit needs to be arranged, the customer service representative should be able to arrange that directly, without keeping you on hold for a long time or asking you to call another department.
If you're unhappy with your provider’s customer service, why not see if you could get a better broadband deal elsewhere.
Ofcom telecoms complaints report
Ofcom, the telecoms industry regulator, releases a quarterly report highlighting the broadband providers that received the most (and fewest) complaints per 100,000 customers.
This is perhaps the best measure of a broadband supplier's customer service. It names and shames providers that received the most complaints over the previous few months and highlights those that impressed with the fewest customer complaints, too.
What issues get the most complaints?
While the number of complaints per provider changes with each report, there are often similar trends in the top causes for those complaints. Since the beginning of the year, the majority of customer complaints were for faults, service and provisioning issues, complaints handling and issues relating to billing, pricing and charges.
Broadband complaints report, November 2020
The most recent Ofcom complaints data report looked at complaints received by Ofcom during the first coronavirus lockdown, from April - June 2020. During this difficult time, complaints to Ofcom actually fell, though most complaints were about the handling of the complaints themselves.
While EE received the lowest number of complaints about its service, both TalkTalk and Vodafone performed far worse than the industry average in this regard. Meanwhile, Sky once again performed well, with a consistently low number of complaints for its broadband, pay-TV, landline and pay-month mobile services.
If you’re unhappy with your broadband provider’s customer service and want to shop around for better deals, try our Network Checker to see the speeds you have available directly to your home.