News: Customer Service/Care
Customer service training: Watchdog to probe mobile phone sector
22 October 2008
Thorough customer service training could be on the horizon in the mobile phone sector after the government's new watchdog uncovered "appalling" practices, it has been reported.
According to the Independent, Consumer Focus intends to make standards of customer service in the industry a priority, with "naming and shaming" occurring among firms with the worst records.
"We have identified mobile phones as an area of crying consumer concern - high complaints, sometimes quite shoddy customer services," the body's chief executive Ed Mayo confirmed to the newspaper.
One of the primary customer service concerns in question regards "bully boy tactics" employed by companies to prevent Ofcom - the communications regulator - from improving conditions for consumers, it is claimed.
A further issue centres on the length of contracts offered to customers and "bogus" cashback offers made by customer service operatives.
One retail giant implemented "experience-based training" earlier this year in a bid to overhaul sales as well as customer care.
Phones 4u's staff development efforts came amid an Ofcom investigation into allegations of mis-selling in the industry.
Consumer Focus is the new group formed after the National Consumer Council, Energywatch and Postwatch merged.
