Skinny's customer care rated best

General manager of Skinny Mobile, Ross Parker, said he was proud the company is ahead of the bigger telecommunications companies when it comes to customer care. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Skinny Mobile has been recognised for its customer service with two awards praising the company's customer care.

Despite having no stores where customers can visit and speak with a staff member in person, Skinny was awarded the Canstar Blue most satisfied customers award for mobile prepaid providers and the Consumer NZ people's choice award.

General manager of Skinny Mobile Ross Parker said the company was proud to come out on top ahead of the bigger telecommunications companies.

He said customers have provided "excellent feedback" on staff in the company's call centre and Facebook had been embraced as a way of communicating with customers.

"It's a really good way to quickly see if there is a problem," Parker said.

Parker said the company's prepay broadband service has been popular with bach owners.

"They would ordinarily have either no coverage because there's no fixed line or they'd have to pay every month when they're not there."

Boaties who berth in a marina for an extended period were also connecting to the service, he said as well as people, like students, who live in a house and want an individual broadband connection.

The broadband uses Spark's 4G network and is capped at 60gb.

"It's not aimed at people who want unlimited broadband."

Moving forward, Parker wouldn't disclose Skinny's market share or future strategies, but said its position within Spark was secure.

"The multibrand strategy has worked over the last four years and there's no reason to think that that is going to change."

Skinny Mobile launched four years ago and was initially targeting a youth customer base.

The brand was seen at music festivals and events aimed at young people for around two years, until it changed tack.

Parker said the company never shifted away from the youth market, but said "potentially our advertising and our products were polarising."

Parker said the brand has focused on targeting people who want "good value".

"The heart of what we do is super low prices and that hasn't changed at all."