Customers disgruntled with local telcos’ complaint resolution methods

Fundamental issues are not being addressed.

Customers are unsatisfied with the way local telcos handle complaints, a survey by the Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES) revealed today.

The survey showed that customers seem dissatisfied with service providers even when their complaints are well-handled because products often fail to meet expectations.

Typically, a well-handled complaint results in satisfaction levels similar to customers who have no reason to complain.

For instance, in 2014, info-communication customers with well-handled complaints were only
3.2% less satisfied than those with no reason to complain.

However, in 2015, customers with well-handled complaints had, on average, a satisfaction score 22.5% lower than those who had no reason to complain.

“The larger discrepancy could point towards fundamental issues customers may be having with the product or service, issues that customer service may not be able to resolve, nor should it be expected to. In the longer term, the solution is to shape customer expectations using branding and communications to position the experience such that the customers better know what to expect. In essence, businesses are ensuring they are attracting the group of customers that will appreciate their service proposition,” said Marcus Lee, Assistant Professor of Marketing (Practice) and Academic Director of ISES.

The survey showed that overall customer satisfaction with the mobile telecoms subsector saw its score grow by 1.7% to 68.4 points. Other subsectors such as Broadband, Pay TV and Wireless@SG all registered lower scores.