Our recent broadband satisfaction survey found that even the unhappiest customers don’t always leave. Eight out of ten of those with the worst performing provider (AOL Broadband) have never switched. But why?
If a service isn’t brilliant, but doesn’t really cause too much trouble, I can see why switching might not seem like a priority.
But as our satisfaction survey shows, even those of us who are really unhappy with the service we’re getting don’t make the effort to leave. Now that sounds a bit odd to me – so what’s stopping us?
Why won’t you switch?
We recently heard from lots of you who agreed that using your internet service provider’s email address can put you off switching. But the most common reasons not to switch are fears that something will go wrong, and concerns about the effort involved.
I think it’s unfair that providers can use these advantages to keep unhappy customers with them. A good step in the right direction would be to make the switching process itself as easy as possible. Thankfully, if you’re moving from one ADSL service to another, the current process should be fairly simple.
But it’s a different story if you’re trying to swap more than one service (like your TV and broadband) at the same time.
There’s a future issue to consider here too – as more people take up superfast broadband, switching from these could be a much more complicated process, new networks are being installed for which switching processes have yet to be developed or agreed.
Efforts to make it easier to switch
Ofcom’s currently looking into what needs to be done to make switching easy and hassle free. It also wants to make sure that the switching process doesn’t get in the way of providers competing to offer lower prices and greater choice. Well that all sounds ideal to me!
We want to make sure that your views are represented in Ofcom’s current review of broadband switching – so tell us about your experiences, good and bad.
If you’re unhappy with you broadband service, what’s keeping you with them? And what do you think broadband providers could do to make it easier to switch?
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