Which broadband providers offer the best customer service?

When choosing a broadband deal, customer service is hugely important as you’re more than likely to need some help or advice from your provider at some point during your contract. In this guide, we’ll look at which provider can offer you the best customer service.

Broadband watchdog Ofcom recently published a huge survey of customer satisfaction with their broadband provider. This survey examined customer satisfaction, complaints and call waiting times. According to Ofcom, for every 100,000 broadband customers, 75 complaints are made each year. Below, we’ll look at which broadband providers have the least complaints, and which have the most. 

Around 80% of broadband customers told Ofcom they were satisfied with their service, with only 15% having a reason to complain. Customer satisfaction with providers has declined overall since 2016, having dropped from 87% to 80% in 2018.

Sky and Virgin Media both have customer satisfaction rates higher than the national average, both receiving satisfaction rates of 83%. These two providers also receive less complaints than the national average, with Virgin receiving 54 complaints for every 100,000 customers and Sky receiving only 29. 

Both Sky and EE exceeded the industry average of 50% satisfaction rates with complaints handling, with Sky receiving 57% and EE 59%

In a more detailed survey of customer service by Which? Magazine, Sky also fared well. Sky exceeded average satisfaction ratings for services such as call handling. Sky customers often said that those handling the call were often highly useful in resolving their issue and they were also happy with the courtesy and politeness of the call handlers. 

Virgin Media received positive feedback among customers for the ease in finding their contact details and being able to get through to someone who could deal with their complaints. However, Virgin Media’s scores among a number of these measures has declined since 2016.

Despite this, Virgin Media still came out as the provider that most respondents said they would recommend to a friend. 

Zen, a much smaller broadband provider did exceptionally well on a lot of customer satisfaction metrics. Whilst Zen is not a household name, in the Which? survey the provider received a 91% customer satisfaction rate. Zen was also one of only two brands to receive the Which? Recommended Provider stamp. 

Although there are many metrics by which customer service can be measured, TalkTalk, Plusnet and BT all received some disappointing figures in the most recent survey. 

According to figures from Ofcom, BT has the highest amount of complaints, averaging 115 complaints per 100,000 customers. TalkTalk follows closely behind with 113 complaints per 100,000 customers. 

Other providers such as Plusnet struggle with average call waiting times, at a lengthy average of 7 minutes and 50 seconds per call and with around 24% of those calls being dropped.

In the Which? survey TalkTalk received only a 46% customer satisfaction rate, with BT at a similar low of 49%. Similarly, in the Ofcom report, TalkTalk dropped from a 51% satisfaction rate in 2016 to a 40% rate in 2018. Unsurprisingly, TalkTalk customers were less likely to recommend the firm to a friend.