ENERGY giant ScottishPower operates one of the UK’s worst call centres, according to a customer satisfaction survey.
More than 7,000 customers ranked its service along with BT and TalkTalk as the least effective based on staff knowledge, phone menu system, politeness, helpfulness and waiting times, according to the Which? poll.
Respondents to the survey were particularly frustrated with long waiting times, poor staff knowledge and lengthy phone menus.
Around one in 10 customers felt the person they spoke to at the energy company’s call centre had poor or very poor product knowledge, a belief shared by 17 per cent of callers to broadband companies BT and TalkTalk.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: “Unfortunately, poor customer service from call centres has become a 21st century bug-bear for too many people.
“Customers should vote with their feet if they’re tired of waiting or fed up with the service they get.
“We want the worst offenders in our survey to raise their game by answering the phone quicker and improving staff training to demonstrate they really value their customers’ time.”
Which? surveyed 7,057 members between February 26 and March 13 this year.
A third of BT Broadband customers (34%) rated its customer service as poor or very poor, while 21% of Scottish Power electricity customers had spent more than 20 minutes waiting for an answer in the last six months.
In contrast, call centres run by Ovo Energy, NFU Mutual, Zen Internet and First Direct all scored highly across the different aspects of the survey.
Almost all those surveyed (95%) said calls should be answered within five minutes by a human voice, not an automated service, and 90% said UK companies should operate UK call centres.
ScottishPower said last night that it had experienced a difficult period following the introduction of a new £200 million customer IT system and the service had now improved.
But the survey is more bad news for the company which earlier this week was criticised by the regulator Ofgem for an advert it ran for a remote-control heating system claiming it could save customers up to 20% on their gas bills.
And last week figures obtained by Citizens’s Advice showed the Scots firm had received the highest number of complaints ever recorded for a UK energy company in a quarter.
There were 1,163 complaints about ScottishPower per 100,000 customers in the last quarter of 2014, the national charity and consumer advocate said. It is the highest figure ever recorded against a single supplier, ending a year in which the total number of complaints about the big six provider increased by 488%, the figures show.
Citizens Advice said its latest figures suggested complaints about Scottish Power were the result of its new billing system, which left some people not receiving a bill and others struggling to have their problems resolved.
A ScottishPower spokesperson said: “We had a very challenging period following the introduction of a new £200 million customer IT system, and we apologise to any customers who experienced issues. Major improvements have been made recently and our call response times have improved significantly since this survey was undertaken. In April 2015, customer calls were answered in 60 seconds on average and this is one of the best levels in the industry. Our call centre opening hours are also the longest in the industry.”
BT and TalkTalk said they were working to improve their services.
BT said: “We’re disappointed by the results of the survey. We are investing significantly in our systems, processes and people to improve our customer service in order to make our service easier for our customers.
“We offer customers a range of ways to contact us so they can use the method they prefer. It’s free to contact us by phone and we’ve rolled out programmes to solve problems first time and shorten waiting times. Our online help and live chat gives customers instant access to experts when they need them.
“Over the last year, we have taken on hundreds of new call UK centre staff and have also set up a dedicated team for complex complaints so customers have a person who owns their issue until it’s resolved.”
A TalkTalk spokesman said: “We’re absolutely committed to improving customer service. We’ve launched an extensive programme to enhance agents’ training, simplify our systems to resolve faults more efficiently and make it easier for customers to manage their account online.
“We’ve made significant improvements to levels of customer satisfaction, but recognise there’s always more to be done.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here