A couple of surveys conducted recently, stated that higher levels of customer satisfaction can be rendered by call centres. This especially comes into significance at the time of a sign up to the service of a new broadband service provider.

Meanwhile, a study carried out by Broadband Genie, a broadband comparison website had revealed that Sky and BT were the fixed broadband service providers of the UK that offered the best customer service, as Orange and TalkTalk fared at the bottom of their list.

A range of parameters were set by the price comparison site to rate the customer service that includes broadband supplier websites, call centre destination, support hours, costs of support calls, and the accuracy in conveying this information to the contacting customers.

The comparison website, assuming the role of a new customer called up the six largest broadband suppliers of the UK, apart from scouring through the company websites. The website claims that it was most impressed by the 24/7 free back up by helpful call centre staff of Sky and BT.

Meanwhile, the price comparison site also found out in their survey that no 24/7 support was offered by TalkTalk, as the operator of Orange Broadband UK responded with the expression that if information on the base location of the call centre was required by the customer, he had to put forth his query on a case by case basis.

As a matter of fact, the customer service menace is more and more alienating customers from the loyalty towards their broadband ISP. In this occasion, the results of another survey carried out by yet another broadband price comparison site called Think Broadband, are worth mentioning. It found out that out of the eleven largest ISPs of the UK, only four came up to score above 50 percent in terms of customer satisfaction.

Despite being hit by the harbour waves of global economic recession, the broadband usage in the UK has been on a steady progress path. This fact is more than substantiated by the fresh projects undertaken by different UK ISPs, as well as the adventurous attitude of the users who seem to have adjusted themselves to the situation by taking some strategical measures such as dumping long term contracts for very short term deals.

Reports say that out of ten households in Britain, six are linked up to broadband today. However, the debacle is that nearly half the lot is not satisfied by the after sales service offered to them. Rersearches on the context suggested that less established ISPs are scoring in terms of value for money, data access speeds and service offered, over their highly recognised rivals.

According to a good number of broadband users of Britain, BT, AOL Broadband and Orange were the ISPs who fared the worst, despite their collectively owning 50 percent of the UK broadband market. On the contrary, O2, Plusnet and BskyB, who emerged as the toppers in the list, combinedly held only 15 percent of the market.

However, the most disappointing fact that was revealed in the survey was that despite rolling out GBP2.6 million a year, forty two percent of the customers were found unhappy with service rendered to them. Forty two percent of the broadband using population equates to 6.3 million people. This happens in the wake of customers daring the tough climate to pay for a reliable high speed broadband connection and above all, a customer service of the good-old fashion.

Meanwhile, a BT spokesman had denounced the survey alongwith the website called Uswitch that undertook the survey saying that it was only the previous week they along with BskyB, were chosen the best for customer service by another site called Broadband Genie through their survey. He also added that BT was also voted one of the best ISPs in the UK in a survey held this week by Reader’s Digest.

A recent survey conducted by a dedicated broadband monitoring website of the UK revealed that out of the eleven biggest ISPs of Britain, only four scored above 50 percent in terms of consumer satisfaction. The website had polled a total of 500,000 people in the UK, out of which 79 percent held O2 as the best in providing customer service, and 72 percent voted it as the most reliable as well.

The broadband comparison website stated that the achievements of O2 and Be Unlimited Broadband in the segment of customer satisfaction was remarkable considering their size as a company. They added that generally in choosing a broadband service to sign up to, people often only considered the up to speeds and the prices, as customer service was definitely of high priority that the consumers only realised afterwards.

A significant fact that was unveiled in the research was that compared with the larger broadband suppliers, small or medium sized service providers fared far better in customer satisfaction rankings. However, it was obviously refreshing to find that a UK ISP that supplies some of the fastest service Broadband packages, also maintained high reliability, as well as customer satisfaction levels.

Be Unlimited, another medium statured UK broadband service provider, had come second next only to O2 with 71 percent votes for customer service and 70 percent for reliability. Plusnet emerged third with 67 and 69 percent, as Sky came fourth. Orange was the major disappointment for languishing at the bottom of the pile, as some other big names such as Pipex, TalkTalk, AOL and Tiscali too trailed below 40 percent.

The broadband comparison website who carried out the survey reckoned that one reason for O2 emerging victorious in the segment could have been for its advantage as a UK call centre. The website added that most common complaint regarding the after sales services of the big ISPs was digress, perhaps evolved out of the lack of technology-based knowledge.