How Consumer ranked telcos for customer-friendliness

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NZ's three mobile providers have been ranked on how easy they make it for people to monitor their phone spend and usage.

Last year, the Commerce Commission asked Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees to improve the usage and spend information made available to their customers, and to provide an annual summary of this information – along with a prompt to consider alternative options.

Did they lift their game?

The watchdog engaged Consumer to undertake an independent review of their progress, and they have just released the results.

2degrees came out on top, providing easy-to-access, transparent information, which enables customers to keep track of their usage and spend, according to Consumer. "Information on the 2degrees app stood out as being clear, comprehensive and accessible, with a single tap from the home screen. However, 2degrees was let down by its annual summary, which lacked historical spend information," Consumer said.

Spark ranked second, providing good information to customers, but it took three taps from the home screen to get to usage and spend information on the Spark app.  Also, rather than sending a self-contained annual summary of usage and spend over the past year, Spark simply sends a text message directing customers to check their app.

Vodafone came third, with what Consumer called "An unwelcoming app which only displays usage from the previous two months, as well as the current billing period."

The information on offer was not as comprehensive as that of Spark and 2degrees, Consumer said.

"However, Vodafone's annual summary was the best of all three providers, giving a useful overview of usage and spend and a prompt to consider switching, along with details of its other plans.

"This review shows that consumers are getting better usage and spend information from their mobile providers than they were before, but there are clearly significant opportunities for further improvement across the board – including for the top-ranked provider – which we'd like to see addressed before we run this study again," Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson said.

Across the board. Price rises by Chorus and the other wholesalers are being passed on by retail ISPs https://t.co/e9KTSxq7pv https://t.co/Sl4zjuriyj

— Chris Keall (@ChrisKeall) September 13, 2022

Consumer CEO Jon Duffy said, "Our research has found that more than half of all mobile consumers have been with the same provider for more than five years.

"Telcos are now sending you better information about what you've spent and what you've used. We'd encourage people to make sure they use this information. Being on the wrong plan or staying with an uncompetitive deal can cost hundreds each year."

Vodafone responds

"Vodafone has implemented annual summaries which provide an overview of customers' usage and spend over the past year and prompt customers to consider moving to a different plan that may be better suited for their needs," corporate affairs head Rich Llewellyn told the Herald.

"We started the rollout of annual summaries in December 2021, both via email and post. It is important to note that there are many different reasons why a customer may choose to be on a particular plan, such as device discounts, companion plans and added services.

Not all customers went through digital channels. Some discussed their plan via a call or in retail stores, Llewellyn said.

"This is particularly the case for a cohort of customers who may be vulnerable and most exposed to cost challenges.

"Therefore, weight must also be given to alternative means by which those customers are informed about the choice of plans that best meet their needs based on historic usage, and how those customers are encouraged toward the right plan."

2degrees responds

"Making things straight forward for our customers has always been a priority at 2degrees so we are chuffed Consumer NZ has seen this," said 2degrees chief marketing and strategy officer Zac Summers.

The watchdog did ding 2degrees for the lack of historical spending data on its annual summary.

"We plan to roll out a steady stream of new features, including how we display annual information," Summers said.

Spark responds

"We believe we've made great progress in this space including providing our customers hourly, daily, monthly data usage information and daily, monthly and yearly breakdowns of voice and text services for a 12-month period. We are also providing monthly and yearly spend information," a Spark spokesperson said.

"We've been working with the Commerce Commission to make improvements to the accessibility of our usage and spend information, with the aim of helping our customers to make more informed decisions when it comes to managing their mobile services,"