TALK.L Share News (TALK)

(Sharecast News) - TalkTalk has come bottom of an Ofcom survey of customer service among broadband providers for the third year running.The regulator found TalkTalk had "generally scored below the industry average across several measures" and that its customers were "less likely to be satisfied with their overall service, its reliability and speed."It continued: "Its customers were also more likely to have a reason to complain, and less likely to have complaints resolved on first contact or be satisfied with how their complaint was handled."TalkTalk has now been found to be worst for customer service for three years running, although in 2017 it shared the bottom spot with Virgin Media.Talking to Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, Ofcom director of market intelligence Iain Macrae said: "It's hard for TalkTalk to hide from the fact that their customer service isn't up to scratch."We absolutely think that the firms need to up their games in the way they handle complaints."However, a TalkTalk spokesperson said: "We're pleased that Ofcom's data again shows an improving trend for the number of complaints received about TalkTalk. And while some of the results in the quality of service report are disappointing, we are already seeing more customers than ever staying with us. We will continue to enhance the services we offer to increase satisfaction levels and ensure complaint numbers continue to come down."The Ofcom survey found that only half of those who make a complaint to any provider were happy with the result, and that the top two reasons for complaining concerned poor connectivity and broadband speeds.But it also found that the total number of complaints to Ofcom about broadband services had fallen by 23%.Also singled out in the report was Plusnet. Ofcom said its share of complaints more than doubled in the last quarter of 2018, when the firm was experiencing problems with a new billing system.EE had the highest satisfaction score among home broadband providers, at 87%, while only 10% of Sky customers had a reason to complain, the lowest amount. TalkTalk's satisfaction score was 79%, and 17% of customers said they had a reason to complain. Less than half - 44% - were satisfied with the complaints handling.John Karidis, analyst at Numis, said: "A key Ofcom conclusion is the quality of TalkTalk's service remains materially sub-standard. We believe this means TalkTalk cannot grow customers/keep churn low without hurting its average revenue per user prospects; in the first nine months of the current full year, group APRU was -2% year-on-year [and] TalkTalk expects this to be flat going forward."The company could also be "underspending on opex/capex", he added, while the possibility of BT's Enterprise poaching wholesale customers could be "material".Numis has a 'sell' rating on TalkTalk and a target price of 70p.