Executives from several telecommunication carriers turned up today at a Communications Alliance Customer Service Summit to hear just how bad their current service levels really are.

Executives from several telecommunication carriers turned up today at a Communications Alliance Customer Service Summit to hear just how bad their current service levels really are.

Speaking at the Summit Federal Broadband and Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy said that the Communications Alliance should be acknowledged for shining the light on the poor customer service issues now facing the industry.

He said that the summit was a prime opportunity for carriers to develop clear strategies to better meet customer expectations of what service levels should be.

Conroy said “The increase in complaint statistics over the past 18 to 24 months cannot be wished away and it is up to industry to respond and ensure consumers have confidence in their service providers. Of particular concern are the lowest level complaints that should be dealt with quickly and simply by Telco’s at the first point of customer contact”

He then showed the attendees to the conference a list of common complaints that included:

1.billing errors,

2.missing information,

3.inconsistencies, and

4.failure to follow through on requests.

He said “Complaint data for June 2009 shows that customer service and complaint-handling issues made up 35.4 per cent of all issues recorded by the TIO. This is simply not good enough and the Government has made clear that regulation is a real prospect if long-term improvements are not made. I encourage you to draw on experiences from other industries, and consider new and emerging resources for the industry to improve complaint handling procedure and practice”.

He added “The Rudd Government has made a strong commitment to ensure a better deal for communications customers and we will continue to work with industry to foster improvements.

He told the audience that “Consumers are experiencing increasingly poor customer service and have concerns about complaint-handling. They are unhappy about the relationships between consumer representatives and industry”.

 He said that consumers must believe that they are respected and their interests are being looked after”

He told the industry that they must install trusted processes that pre-empt problems.