Where TV Operators are Failing: The Top Negative Interactions

Customer experience is a hot topic in the pay-TV industry. More and more providers are looking to delight consumers and offer the best service possible. But how are they stacking up? With our recent research showing that 31% of consumers surveyed across the UK, US and the Philippines experienced a negative interaction or issue with a TV provider in the past 12 months, it’s obvious that a lot of operators are failing. Many customers don’t stick around when they’re dissatisfied and 26% of those surveyed terminated a relationship with a pay-OTT provider in the last 12 months because of poor service. So where are operators going wrong?

Contact Centre Support

The top complaint from customers who had received a negative interaction (36%), was difficulty trying to contact a TV provider to discuss an issue or problem. When something goes wrong with a TV service, consumers are already annoyed but operators seem to be making this matter worse by making it difficult to get in touch with an issue. Upping contact centre support, having online web chat and clear contact information are simple fixes that more providers need to take on board to keep customers happy.

Major Service Outage

34% of consumers with negative interactions had a major service outage that lasted more than 4 hours, this being particularly high in the Philippines at 41%. This is a huge problem for customers, especially for those with large families and if an outage happens at peak hours. Although things like weather disruptions can cause unavoidable disruptions, operators must schedule maintenance etc at times that would have the least impact on customers.

Unexpected Price Increase

An unexpected bill increase is never going to be a happy experience but that’s not stopping operators. A massive 30% of customers had an unexpected price increase which they felt was too high for the level of service they received in the last 12 months. Although increasing prices is unavoidable at times for, to stop customers looking negatively at your brand it’s important to make changes clear to customers and skip increases mid-contract.

Incorrect Bill and Trouble Making Payment

Consumers tend to be most unhappy when it comes to money, but operators are still failing majorly in this sector, with 26% receiving an incorrect bill as well as having trouble making payments. It’s important that service providers start to improve this part of their business, and use data and analytics where they can to make this process run as accurately and smooth as possible.

And the Rest…

Other problems consumers have faced in the last 12 months include engineers not turning up, being sent boxes they didn’t request, payments being requested for cancelled services and not being sent the correct bill.

Download our Full Research Paper

Our ‘Show the Love with Customer Experience’ paper looks in-depth at the service consumers are receiving from their providers as well as what they’re next move is when it comes to TV providers. Download our full research paper here.