Plusnet and Zen Offer Best Customer Service, According to New Survey

Consumer-conscious broadband provider Zen Internet and budget provider Plusnet have topped MoneySavingExpert.com's latest customer service poll.

MoneySavingExpert quizzed 7,000 consumers about the performance of their broadband provider over the last six months, asking them to rate their customer service as ‘great,’ ‘OK,’ or ‘poor.’

Zen topped the list, with 94% of respondents rating its customer service as ‘great’ and just 2% saying it was ‘poor.’

Zen offers broadband that is somewhat more expensive than competitors—standard broadband packages are £28 per month and fibre packages start at £37 per month, including line rental. But superior customer service, including the operation of a UK-based call centre, is a big selling point for the company. Its 100,000 domestic and commercial subscribers seem to agree.

Andrew Fryatt, managing director at Zen, welcomed the poll.

"We believe in doing things differently, putting people first and making great customer support a top priority. We regularly win awards for our service and support, and results like this one just confirm that we're doing something right,” he said.

Plusnet came in second place, with 58% of polled subscribers saying the budget provider’s customer service in 2018 has been ‘great.’

John Lewis’s broadband offerings also scored well, with 53% of subscribers highly rating their customer service.

Only broadband providers with 75 respondents appear on MSE’s official table, but Hyperoptic, delivering dizzying full fibre speeds in select locations, and SSE, broadband provided by the Big Six energy supplier, scored well on the 50 to 75 ballots they received. Hyperoptic notched an 88% approval rating from customers and SSE posted 68% ‘great.’

Budget provider TalkTalk came at the bottom of the league again, but their score improved since MSE’s previous ratings were published. Six months ago, 45% of customers said TalkTalk’s customer service was 'poor.’ Today, 38% said the same.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said the results were “disappointing,” but insisted that the company had recently rolled out “major service improvements.”

"We've closed down our call centres in India, we have introduced new online tools to help customers resolve issues quickly and conveniently, and have launched our new Wi-Fi Hub with unbeatable Wi-Fi signal to strengthen network reliability. All these initiatives are starting to deliver improvement in satisfaction levels,” TalkTalk said.

Post Office and BT rounded out the bottom of the rankings, with around a third of customers rating their customer service as ‘poor.’

Origin Broadband and Hull-area provider KCOM performed even worse on assessment, with 56% and 46% of their customers rating their service as ‘poor,’ respectively, but received just under the required 75 responses and weren’t included in MSE’s official ranking.

For the full ranking of ISPs, see below:

Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for most of the last decade, covering technology, energy, and consumer rights, in the US and UK.

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