Which? tells Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas to improve customer service
Which? has written to the CEOs of Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas urging them to improve their customer service as new research from the consumer association reveals they are the worst broadband and energy firms for customer service.
The consumer association surveyed 4,101 people in May 2024 to find out which are the worst firms for customer service and where they are falling short.
Which?’s research reveals that, across nine sectors, consumers are most satisfied with financial services for overall customer service, which leads with a net satisfaction score of +72.
Energy and broadband remained two of the worst-performing sectors for customer service – with net satisfaction in customer service interactions in energy and broadband at +51 and +52 respectively.
Virgin Media was crowned the worst-performing broadband firm, receiving +29 for overall customer service. This is significantly lower than the sector average of +52.
Which?’s survey looked at several aspects of customer service, including how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help, variety of contact options, how seriously the customer service representative took customers’ issues and how well the issue was resolved.
Virgin Media received dismal scores across the board – scoring just +18 for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help and +38 for both how well customers’ issues were dealt with and how well queries were resolved.
Half (50%) of Virgin Media customers experienced at least one customer service issue – most commonly waiting a long time on the phone to speak to an advisor (51%), being passed between departments without a helpful response (36%) and speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors (34%). One Virgin Media customer told Which? that over several months, they spent 10 hours trying to get their problem resolved.
Scottish Power and British Gas remained the worst-performing energy firms – receiving +34 and +43 respectively for overall customer service. Both firms’ scores have improved since Which? last looked into this area. Both firms are also investing in their customer service but its latest research shows there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Scottish Power came bottom across the board – scoring just +23 for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help and +33 for how long it took to get an answer to a customer issue.
British Gas fared better than Scottish Power but still received scores well below the sector average of +51 for overall customer service. It fared particularly poorly for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help (+30), how long it took to get an answer to customer queries (+39) and how well customer service kept the consumer informed about the progress of their issue (+43).
More than half (55%) of Scottish Power and half (50%) of British Gas customers had experienced at least one customer service issue in the last year. Of those who had experienced a problem, the most common issue was waiting a long time on the phone before speaking to an advisor – nearly half of Scottish Power (45%) and British Gas (46%) customers who had issues with customer service reported this problem. One in five (18%) Scottish Power and British Gas customers said they could not even reach customer services despite continuous attempts.
Other common customer service issues with Scottish Power included being given false promises by the customer service team (30%) and not being given good advice or support (26%).
Says Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy:
“Our research lays bare the dire state of customer service – with some companies simply not up to scratch.
“Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas remained the worst performing broadband and energy firms for customer service. It is never OK for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.
“We have written to all three firms about their consistently poor performance in our research. Which? is calling on them to give consumers the customer service they deserve and clearly communicate the steps they are taking to improve.”
Figure 1: Consumers’ rating of overall customer service by best and worst broadband-only providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your broadband provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their broadband provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: Sector (1,821), Plusnet (210), Virgin Media (506).
Figure 2: Consumers’ rating of different aspects of customer service for different broadband-only providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your broadband provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their broadband provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: How long it took to get in touch with a person that could help – Sector (1,811), Plusnet (207), Virgin Media (503). How long it took to get an answer to your issue /query – Sector (1,806), Plusnet (206), Virgin Media (501).
Figure 3: Consumers’ rating of overall customer service by best and worst energy providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your energy provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their energy provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: Sector (1,709), Octopus Energy (630), British Gas (489), Scottish Power (215).
Figure 4: Consumers’ rating of different aspects of customer service by best and worst energy providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your energy provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their energy provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: How long it took to get in touch with a person that could help – Sector (1,683), Octopus Energy (621), British Gas (487), Scottish Power (213). How long it took to get an answer to your issue /query – Sector (1,693), Octopus Energy (626), British Gas (490), Scottish Power (211).
Rights of reply
A British Gas spokesperson said: ‘‘The survey is not representative, out of 4101 respondents it included less than 500 of our customers and is based on data that is up to a year old. We’ve invested £50m in our customer operations since the start of the energy crisis – this includes hiring 700 more UK based contact centre staff at the end of last year, introducing longer call centre opening times and providing additional training to our dedicated colleagues on supporting customers in financial difficulty. This investment is working, customers are seeing a difference, that’s why as part of the trusted Uswitch Energy Awards last month we received recognition for Best Overall Improvement. We’ll continue to look at how we can further improve customer service.”
A spokesperson for ScottishPower said: “We service 2.9 million customers a year across a range of channels, including phone, chat, email and online. 97% of customer emails were responded to within 2 days and our average speed of answering phone enquiries is under 107 seconds. These figures, published as part of a much larger and more robust study by Citizens Advice are more representative than the 217 customers (0.007% of our customer base) surveyed by Which? and puts us top of the large suppliers when it comes to Customer Service call waiting times and email turnaround. We’ve worked tirelessly to improve and enhance our services for all of our customers and will continue to do everything we can to help them.”
A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “We are making real changes across our business to deliver customer service improvements and we’re already seeing tangible results that wouldn’t be reflected in this old survey from Which? that, incidentally, represents less than 0.01% of our customer base. We have boosted the number of agents, including in specialist teams that handle the most complex issues, and are investing more money in customer-facing areas of the business. We’re also multi-skilling our teams, transforming our IT systems and improving our digital tools, including through new technology that will solve customers’ issues even before they report a fault. While change can take time, this programme of targeted investment has already seen us reduce average call waiting times to just two minutes, and last year 95% of customer complaints were resolved first time. We’re continuing to focus on removing pain points and delivering the best possible service to our customers.”
