Gilbertson wants action on barriers to churn

Commerce Commission says telco protocols need work

A Commerce Commission study found telecommunications customers continue to face barriers if they attempt to switch between service providers.

Almost a third of people wanting to switch found the experience so bad, that it puts them off switching again in the future.

Telecommunications Commissioner, Tristan Gilbertson says; “We’re concerned that 50 percent of mobile switchers and 45 percent of broadband switchers ran into at least one issue when switching and that 29% of mobile switchers and 27% of broadband switchers said the whole experience was so bad they wouldn’t want to switch again in the future.”

Switching takes too much effort

A separate consumer satisfaction report conducted by the Commerce Commission revealed what is essentially the same problem expressed in a different form.

Although switching providers might mean a better experience or a better price, 31 percent of mobile customers don’t make the leap because it requires too much effort to change providers. Almost as many broadband customers (29 percent) expressed the same view.

This goes some way to explaining why telecommunications switching levels are low in New Zealand when compared to elsewhere. Gilbertson says the barriers, perceived or actual, dampen competition.

Systems don’t speak to each other

The problem occurs because service providers fail to communicate with each other in ways that improve the customer experience.

Or as Gilbertson puts it, there’s a lack of comprehensive protocols between the “gaining” service provider and the “losing” service provider. This leads to problems such as double billing, unexpected charges and delays.

“We see an important opportunity for the industry to work towards addressing these issues and we welcome the indications received from the TCF, the telecommunications industry forum, that they’re keen to work with us to explore this further.”

Evidence customers are not switching

Commerce Commission research shows that 61 percent of mobile customers and 43 percent of broadband customers have been with the same provider for more than five years.

Consumer calls this the “set and forget” approach. It warns that with fluctuating services, prices and performance, not changing providers means customers often end up paying more than they need to for services. Last year Consumer found only eight percent of customers moved their mobile phone accounts in 2023.

This compares with 19 percent of customers switching their electricity provider in a year. In the UK, 16 percent of mobile customers move every year.

InternetNZ: Half the nation wants to work from home

Fewer are able to work from home than in recent years. Yet the practice remains popular with New Zealanders, according to this year’s InternetNZ’s Internet Insights survey.

Researchers found 52 percent of New Zealanders do jobs that are considered suitable for working from home.

Curiously, this number is lower than at any time in the three prior years. That’s almost certainly because employers have changed their views on what work is suitable for remote working.

We have the technology

They also found that over half the workforce has the necessary technology to work from home.

Last year 61 percent of work was considered suitable for remote working. This suggests definitions of suitability have changed more than the nature of jobs. The workforce does not change that quickly.

There are still considerable numbers of people working from home. InternetNZ says 13 percent of those surveyed work from home all the time, while another 25 percent do so “some of the time”.

However, there was a drop of 8 percent in the number of people who work from home some or all of the time—down to 38 percent from 45 percent.

Can’t... or not allowed to?

A total of 48 percent ”can’t work from home”. That’s up from last year’s 44 percent and the 43 percent who could not work from home in 2021, when the mood and conditions were quite different.

Men (55 percent) are considerably more likely to say they can’t work from home than women (41 percent). Age does not appear to determine a person’s ability to work from home, but ethnicity has a big influence. Almost six in ten Māori (59 percent) say they can’t work from home, while that restriction only applies to four in ten (39 percent) Asian people.

The most common barrier to people working from home more often is employer demands that they must be in the office a certain number of days. The need for face-to-face meetings also get a mention, along with “employer attitudes to remote working”.

Callout: More evidence of the switch away from working from home behind the BusinessDesk paywall at: Mentions of remote working in job ads declining, says Seek.

Minister Goldsmith, Mark Aue confirmed for Tuanz Connecting Aotearoa Summit

Paul Goldsmith the minister for media and communication is scheduled to give a keynote address at the Connecting Aotearoa Summit taking place in Hamilton in May.

Also on the agenda is Chorus CEO Mark Aue and Sharina Nisha, One New Zealand’s general manager of network services.

Chorus shares fibre upgrade experience with Australia

Wednesday’s edition of Communications Day led with a story about Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers talking to NBN retailers.

Rodgers was in Sydney to share the experience of the 2021 Big Fibre Boost project, which saw Chorus bump most of its customers from 100 Mbps fibre plans to 300 Mbps.

Grahame Lynch writes:

The decision was also driven by rising bandwidth demand, particularly in the wake of Covid-19 lockdowns. “We could see some customers were maxing out their connections, creating a negative experience,” Rodgers said. “So before that problem worsened, it felt like the right thing to do to boost those customers up to 300Mbps.”

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