The mobile telecommunications industry was starting to get the rising level of consumer complaints “under control” and the connect.resolve was “making a difference”, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Deirdre O’Donnell, told AMTA’s Members Forum in Sydney last night.

“My name’s Deirdre and I love complaints!,” said the Ombudsman, who will step down from her position at the end of this year to pursue her long-held ambition to undertake doctoral studies.

Ms O’Donnell said customer complaints should be viewed as business intelligence by mobile telecommunications companies and used as feedback to help them do their jobs properly.

She said she had not been a “gotcha” Ombudsman, ready to pounce on mobile carriers that had been the subject of customer complaints. Instead she had worked positively and co-operatively with companies and customers to have issues resolved quickly and efficiently.

The connect.resolve program was designed to encourage the telecommunications industry to refocus on customers and their experiences following an unacceptably high level of complaints about customer service-related matters.

Ms O’Donnell said the program had “made a difference” with customer service complaints stabilizing, following a 43% rise last year.

“We are starting to get things under control from the extraordinary increases we had seen previously. The program has drawn attention to customer service issues.

“Since April complaints have been pretty stable and we are in a better place today than 12 months ago.

“It was never just about statistics. We needed to start a conversation about customers – real people – and their experiences and not focus just on numbers.

“We have targeted CEOs, which we have not done before. In the past middle managers at telecommunications companies would be telling their people, ‘Everything is fine’, which it wasn’t.”

Ms O’Donnell said she had sat down with company CEOs to outline the issues and some had been “shocked” to hear the extent and nature of customer complaints.

She said complaints about Mobile Premium Services, which had been a “hot” consumer issue, had subsided.

“No-one is asking about it anymore, however, the scars run deep. The new Code was important in addressing this issue; people still remember the bad old days and it will take a while to get over it,” Ms O’Donnell said.

She thanked AMTA for responding to consumer concerns over mobile data charges and “bill shock” with the release of the “Mind your mobile data spend” tips.