Karma Computing

Best Broadband Providers Project

Christopher Simpson -

Imagine:

  • Not waiting for ages on the phone, listening to silly music
  • Not having to find your connection doesn't work, because your ISP has already fixed it for you
  • Never having to change the settings on your router yourself

We've all had the experience of waiting on the phone trying to talk to a broadband provider. It's frustrating for customers and it's frustrating for support staff trying to help. This is especially true of larger broadband providers who seemingly have more customers than they are able to support. At Karma Computing, we believe there is a limit to the number of customers you can have before your support starts to fall apart. This can also be true of small ISPs who suffer from technical arrogance assuming that their customers know the ins and outs of how the internet works. All you want is your connection to work, and to know that someone is looking into it when there's an issue.

That's why we started the 'Best Broadband Providers Project'. We know there's a better way to do broadband support. What's more, we're sharing it openly in the hope everyone can feel chilled out even when the connection needs a little helping hand.

Tell me more...

What qualifies the best broadband providers in the UK?

The UK broadband network is largely on the back of Openreach which provides the infrastructure required for communication providers to give you an internet connection. This is what we sell at Karma Computing.

"Best broadband providers" therefore are not really competing on the infrastructure unless you're really big (Virgin, TalkTalk, etc) what you're really asking is:

  • Which broadband provider will pick up the phone quickly when I have a problem? (Hint hint, that's not TalkTalk or another big provider)
  • Which broadband provider will treat me like a person, not a number?
  • Do I like my broadband company?
  • Are they honest with me about my pricing?

The best internet providers have a choice. It basically boils down to two options:

  1. Compete on price ...and suffer getting overran without being able to support your customers
  2. Compete on service: Be realistic on price & take time building a service which is joy to use

Option 1: Compete on price

These are not the best broadband providers. Sadly most broadband providers take this route. In fact most of the time you're talking to a broker who will earn between £50 and £100 for connecting you to a re-sold service. If you're looking for the bargain basement this will be for you. Don't expect support to be there should you have a problem. In fact, they're often not even communication providers. They would not know how to help you even if they wanted to.

We genuinely feel for people on support lines doing their best to help frustrated broadband customers with their connections, reading from a script and hoping it works for them. This is the result of competing on price, do your part by choosing not to contribute to this issue. It's not fun for you and it's not fun for the person on the phone. Choose realistically priced broadband provider.

Option 2: Compete on service

This takes effort but it's not impossible. Service is the choice you make between enjoying what you do versus pushing a product down people's throats to meet a sales target. Let's flip this to the positive!

Imagine, deep relaxing breath... You're calm and relaxed because the person on the end of the phone who's helping you has all the time in the world to help you, they don't have any sales quotas to hurry and their only concern is letting you know where they can help, and being honest if there's going to be a problem (such as a delay). Now imagine you don't even have to do anything, all the settings and complicated things can be done automatically by the person at the end of the phone. You've got a query about your bill and you feel comfortable as though you're talking to a friend as they explain the situation.

Both of these scenarios exist today. We know because we've seen both of them. We choose option 2 because we value what we do and want to take pride in our work.

Our dream is that the stack it high, sell it cheap approach to broadband sales will die away. We'll start with broadband, next energy, then change the whole industry. To all Telesales reps & customers out there, we value you and have a place for you.