Communications Consumer Panel calls on Ofcom to publish data on how communications providers handle consumer complaints
30 March 2010
The Communications Consumer Panel has called on Ofcom to raise standards of complaints-handling by publishing data on how providers perform. “Publishing complaints data should give providers an incentive to improve their performance and the Panel would like Ofcom to explore how robust data could be published,” Panel Chair Anna Bradley said.
Responding to regulator Ofcom’s consultation on complaints-handling, the Panel said that it would like to see a range of information published, including customer satisfaction, how providers perform against the proposed code, numbers of complaints that have been poorly handled and numbers of complaints that are referred to alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
The Panel says that Ofcom’s proposed new code of practice is an important step towards improving how communications providers deal with consumer complaints. The Panel particularly welcomes the plans to enable consumers to register and escalate complaints more easily: “Making it easier for consumers to register a complaint must be central to an improved system of complaints-handling”, Anna Bradley said.
The Panel is also pleased that the code would apply to complaints made by small businesses (up to 10 employees), as well as individual consumers: “At the moment if a small business has a problem with a provider this can have a major commercial impact, and often they have insufficient resources to resolve the issue,” Anna Bradley concluded.