Guernsey's Airtel and Sure customer satisfaction 'falls'

Two of Guernsey's mobile operators have seen a reduction in customer satisfaction during the last six months, the regulator has announced.

Hundreds of islanders were asked about their experiences of mobile service providers Sure, JT and Airtel.

JT was the only firm to see a big increase in customer satisfaction, the survey has suggested.

Sure and Aritel said the results coincided with major changes in both firms, including the roll-out of 4G.

The survey was conducted by the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities (CICRA) which questioned 500 islanders.

Customers were asked whether they had or were likely to change providers and how happy they were with their customer services.

Those who rated Airtel's quality of service as "satisfactory or highly satisfactory" fell from 88% in November, to 71% in May.

For Sure, the figure fell from 70% to 64%, but JT's rating increased from 40% to 68%.

Louise Read, CICRA director, said: "It is encouraging that JT has made significant across-the-board improvements.

"We are now looking to all three operators to demonstrate the ability to achieve sustainable improvements in customer satisfaction."

Sure said it had expected a "complete overhaul" of its mobile networks - which included a new 4G network and upgrades to 2G and 3G - to impact on its customer service.

Charlotte Dunsterville, the firm's customer experience director, said: "These past few months have been a period of some disruption to our customers, which makes it understandable that we have slightly lower results in some categories of the survey whilst maintaining our progress in other areas."

Ian Campbell, CEO of Airtel-Vodafone, said: "This survey was undertaken in the middle of our 4G network roll-out - a very complex high tech project, causing inevitable disruptions, which we have aimed to keep to a minimum.

"There are clearly improvements to be made and we will continue to listen to feedback and, where necessary, implement initiatives that ensure we are providing the best possible service levels to our customers."

Tamara O'Brien, from JT, said: "Providing great customer service is vital to JT, so naturally we are really pleased to see the data as reported in CICRA's latest mobile survey."