OTT Providers Get Higher Marks Than Pay TV for Customer Service

Traditional pay TV providers are going to have to drastically improve their customer service if they expect to compete with over-the-top (OTT) video services. That's the lesson from a survey of 3,000 customers in the U.K., U.S., and Philippines conducted by London-based pay TV monetization company Paywizard.

The survey looked at 10 customer service touchpoints (such as joining a service, contacting customer service, and dealing with a billing issue) to learn how positively or negatively customers viewed their past experiences. Overall, OTT providers had better ratings in 8 of the 10 areas. U.K. customers gave pay TV providers the highest marks, rating them more favorably in 4 areas.

The most negative areas for customers (of both pay TV and OTT companies) are dealing with a billing issue, cancelling a subscription, and contacting customer service.

Even though they rated better there's a lesson for OTT services here, as customers said they find it too difficult to contact customer service and upgrade or downgrade their service with OTT providers.

As Paywizrd CEO Bhavesh Vaghela explains, the report is useful to both types of providers: Pay TV companies need to invest a lot more in customer service, and OTT companies can't take it for granted that they're providing acceptable service at every touchpoint.