Europe : The Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their online customers, today released findings from its First Quarter 2007 Online Customer Respect Study of UK Telecommunications Companies.

The study evaluated 54 websites as a representative sample of the industry’s leading companies across three geographies, the United States, Canada and The United Kingdom. Using a common set of criteria, it is the only study to bring objective measurement to the analysis of online performance from a customer’s perspective. A directly comparable Customer Respect Index (CRI™) is provided for each company. The Customer Respect Index is a qualitative and quantitative indepth analysis and independent benchmark of a customer’s experience when interacting via the Internet.

Ease of Use, Communication and Trust

The CRI is composed of six sub-indices that factor into three meta-concepts identified by customers as their critical concerns when using websites:

UK Telecommunications Industry

The report analyzed 14 Telecommunications, Wireless, Cable, and MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) companies. Customer 'churn' is considered one of the most pressing issues for the Telecommunications industry and 25 percent of customers are considered a high churn risk - those who may be ready to begin purchasing from a competitor at any time. The website is one of the factors affecting churn especially in the 18-34 age demographic grouping.

The UK Industry overall scored a average CRI Score of 5.8 out of 10, slightly above average for a range of industries but just below their US and Canadian equivalents.

One company, O2, measured well enough overall to receive the Excellent Customer Respect rating. This is the first website from the UK telecommunications Industry to receive the Excellent Rating.

Select Findings

Site simplicity remains the highest scoring area and is in line with overall averages, with wireless operators leading the way. Worst for site simplicity were Mobile Virtual Network Operators. T-Mobile moved into top position in this category.

Usability for users with visual or mobility disabilities -- affecting up to ten percent of web users -- was much less impressive. In fact, U.S. companies faired far worse in providing support compared to results found in Europe. Only CenturyTel rated highly among U.S. companies, and it was the only U.S. company in the top ten for accessibility. EU regulations have mandated accessibility in the coming years and we are seeing the effects of the regulations.

The industry performed worst in privacy. Telecom firms ask for more personal data than companies in other industries. This data is often unconnected to the request being made by the customer. Fully 64 percent of companies were judged to ask for excessive amounts of personal data, compared to 43 percent in other industries. The collection of data is one breach of the customer’s privacy, but the industry goes on to re-use the data more than other industries. More than three quarters ofcompanies use the data for ongoing marketing, which exceeds the average of 64 percent measured in other industries. These figures do not reflect, however, an interesting disparity: Traditional telecommunications companies are more respectful than cable companies. Poor ratings for cable companies are possibly a reflection of sectors merging and companies reaching out to non-traditional customers more aggressively. Supporting this, we see that Verizon Wireless, AT&T and CenturyTel lead the way for respecting customer privacy.

Just one UK Telecommunications website achieved the rating of Excellent, that of O2. The O2 website also achieved an excellent score on the 5 of the 6 sub-indices. Other notable performances were by Virgin on email responsiveness and Kingston Communications and Talk Talk on site Simplicity. One area of concern is in the area of Principles (the degree to which sites protect personal information) with 6 sites rated poor.The UK telecommunications companies rated were:

A full Telecommunications Scorecard is available from The Customer Respect Group at http://www.customerrespect.com.

According to Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group, "The Telecommunications industry is in a state of flux and churn and we see major changes disguised in the overall numbers. As companies reach across traditional business lines to gain new customers, we see a race to capture customer data to perform new campaigns. This results in some positive and negative aspects for the customer with the increased use of electronic marketing. Companies need to make sure thy do not cross a line that might damage their overall brand reputations."