New figures from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman have revealed a small drop in the number of complaints it handled in the first quarter of this year – though ACCAN, and the ombudsman himself, say the raw number is still too high, writes Communications Day this week.

The TIO received 52,730 complaints from consumers and small businesses around Australia in the first three months of the year, compared with 54,287 for the previous quarter and 61,248 complaints in the September 2009 quarter.

While acknowledging that the number of complaints is still too high, newly-appointed ombudsman Simon Cohen welcomed the downward trend, particularly if it meant that the complaints to telcos, not just to the TIO, were also going down.

“Looking at the TIO numbers over the years, there was a definite increase in the number of complaints so in that context it’s good to see the lower number,” Cohen (right) told CommsDay, suggesting that the TIO’s previous connect.resolve campaign had highlighted the need to improve complaint handling.

However, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network CEO Allan Asher, who has been a vocal critic of telco customer service, welcomed the drop in complaints but said there were still too many. “It is pleasing to see complaints are on the way down but really, is 52,000 complaints about an industry over a three-month period a good result by anyone’s standards? Surely not,” he said.

The ACCAN head also noted that TIO complaints are usually resolved “at the first level” and called for service providers to match that responsiveness. “The telcos obviously have the capacity to resolve a customer’s complaint, we would just like to see it done in a more timely and responsive manner, without it having to reach the ombudsman,” he said.

Customer service has been a hot issue of late, with service providers put on notice that they need to improve the way they resolve customer issues. As well as ACCAN, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and communications minister Stephen Conroy have all called for the industry to improve customer service and complaint handling.

The TIO is also taking part in two current reviews: the Communications Alliance-led review of theTelecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code and the ACMA’s inquiry into customer service that was first announced at this year’s CommsDay Summit.

Cohen said the focus on complaints handling was “really positive” and suggested that service providers should look at it as an opportunity to improve their relationship with customers.

“Something will always go wrong, what matters is how they respond to it. The review by the ACMA and the review of the code provide a new and fresh opportunity to look more broadly at complaint mechanisms,” Cohen noted.

Cohen has only been in the telecom ombudsman’s chair since last month, having previously worked as Victoria’s public transport ombudsman. He told CommsDay that one of his immediate areas of concern would be to make the TIO more accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

“Access has a number of elements but being known is the first step, and the second is making it easier to communicate with us. We need to cover all of the means, whether its phone or internet or whatever, that people are using to communicate,” he said.

The ombudsman noted that whether in transport or telecom or some other service, quite often those that are at a disadvantage socially don’t have the same access to dispute resolution as others. Accessibility is a key issue for Australia’s most vulnerable groups, who are least likely to know about or ask for assistance in resolving complaints with telecommunications providers,” Cohen said.

The new ombudsman also flagged a number of ongoing and coming priorities, including participation in the various review processes, changes to the TIO’s own complaint handling process, and the introduction of a new complaints manage system and web site for the organisation.

The charging system for its member service providers will also change. Currently members pay a quarterly membership fee in advance, however this will change to a monthly fee paid in arrears.