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Benchmarking and general comparisons

Chapter 6

6.1 During the period May to Oct ’03 just over three-quarters (77%) of contacts that could recall a comparable experience, said Oftel had dealt with their contact better, or on a par with the other company they had contacted, as shown in figure 6a Consistently high levels of preference for Oftel’s handling of complaints/enquiries have been reported since this survey began in April ’02. However, this does mean that a proportion (16%) of these consumers, have experienced a better service elsewhere.

Figure 6a: Oftel’s complaint handling compared to other organisations
Base: All consumers contacting Oftel and ever contacted another company/organisation, May ‘03 - Oct ‘03 (Base: 214)

Benchmarking

6.2 Oftel submitted responses to key questions from wave 3 to an externally run benchmarking group. Results are collected and compared on a 6 monthly basis. Each organisation receives a report stating their position in relation to the group, the average benchmark and the named ‘top performer’ for each aspect. Currently 34 government organisations submit data to this group.

6.3 The following chart shows Oftel’s position in relation to the government department average and the ‘top performer’ for each aspect.

Figure 6b: Oftel’s satisfaction results (amongst Oftel handled contacts) benchmarked against the average for government departments and ‘top performer’

Oftel

Governemnt departments

Top performer

Overall satisfaction (34 companies)		83%
		86%
		98%

Courtesy of staff (25 companies)		97%
		95%
		100%

Ease of getting through to staff (11 companies)		94%
		87%
		98%

Staff interested and keen to assist (8 companies)		91%
		83%
		98%

Overall time taken to respond (16 companies)		90%
		83%
		98%

*Time taken to respond to writen enquiries (8companies)		84%
		79%
		94%

Overall satisfaction with complaints (10 companies)		83%
		64%
		83%

* small base so apply caution to results

6.4 As last wave on the whole Oftel compares well to the average benchmark for government departments. As precise sample sizes for each organisation’s survey are not published, we are unable to accurately establish whether these differences are significant, however, they give an indication of areas of strength and weakness in comparison to other organisations.

6.5 Overall satisfaction (83% amongst Oftel handled cases during wave 3) remains broadly similar to the government average (86%) but based on estimations of base sizes is likely to be significantly lower than the top performer (98%).

6.6 On the other hand, Oftel’s overall satisfaction figure relating to complaints handling is equal to that submitted by the top performer (83%).

6.7 Oftel continues to compare well to the ‘top performer’ on ease of contact, and the courtesy of staff.

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