Opinion: broadband, TV and phone firms must improve service for vulnerable customers

Lack of consistency is causing more upset for customers already in a vulnerable position.

Have you ever tried to contact a communications provider, whether that’s a mobile phone network, a broadband provider or perhaps a pay-TV provider?

It can be difficult even in the best of times, let alone over the last year.

What’s more, the service we receive can be incredibly patchy, changing seemingly randomly depending on the day we call and the people we speak to. 

What’s more, new research from communications regulator Ofcom has laid bare just how variable the treatment of vulnerable people, in particular, can be by telecoms firms. 

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A lack of consistency

The study was based on 22 in-depth interviews with customers who are in either a permanent or vulnerable position.

And what is clear is that there is simply no consistency in how customers are handled. 

The regulator said it did come across examples of more positive experiences, where firms had gone the extra mile and provided additional support when a customer highlighted their vulnerable circumstances. 

But the reality has been that there is no consistency, so few people have a positive experience from beginning to end.

Instead, those shining lights of kindness and compassion, where the various support measures are outlined properly, stand out precisely because of how poor the rest of the experience ends up being.

As Ofcom noted, the experiences tended to come down to which member of staff an individual dealt with, and so could be radically different each time they contacted their provider, or on the various occasions when they were transferred from one customer service agent to another.

Doing things better

Ofcom spoke to a host of organisations that help vulnerable people, like Age UK, Money Advice Trust, and the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.

And their own experiences chimed with those of the individual interviewees, making clear that it’s luck of the draw whether a vulnerable customer is treated with sympathy or not.

The organisations identified a host of areas that communications firms can perform better, including:

• Doing a better job of identifying those in vulnerable circumstances and recording their needs;
• Making sure frontline staff are consistent in recognising the role of organisations who can act as appointees or pay bills on a customer’s behalf and allow them to act for the customer;
• Being clear on the support available, and flexible when dealing with people in debt or financial difficulty.

This isn’t good enough

The current situation simply isn’t acceptable.

It cannot be right that it’s complete pot luck whether you get treated properly as a vulnerable person, that it’s entirely the luck of the draw of who you end up speaking to about your issue as to whether you are treated with understanding and compassion or whether you are given short shrift.

The last year has shifted the circumstances of millions, and it’s done so rapidly. There are plenty of people who started 2020 in a fairly stable position financially and are now in serious bother.

Ofcom is right to point out that it won’t always be obvious for telecoms firms to recognise the customers who are now in a vulnerable position, who previously would have appeared to be anything but.

Yet that isn’t the fault of those vulnerable customers.

While some will be comfortable informing providers of the changes in their circumstances which may have left them in a more precarious position, realistically that won’t be the case for everyone.

There will be plenty of people who feel some sense of embarrassment, or even shame, which is why it’s crucial for communications firms to do a better job at spotting those signs of vulnerability without them always having to be made explicit.

More than anything though, we need consistency, not just across individual businesses but across the industry.

Ofcom has rules in place which mean that vulnerable customers need to be treated fairly and with respect, while the regulator has also published a guide to demonstrate how communications firms need to behave with customers in this position.

Clearly, there is a lot of work still to be done on getting businesses to deliver the required standards of service though.

This isn’t something that can simply be ignored, however. The legacy of Covid is that for the foreseeable there will be increased numbers of vulnerable customers.

Providers of all kinds need to do more to treat them properly.

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