WSP customer service reps lacking accessibility knowledge: CRTC

The country’s largest wireless service providers have “significant room for improvement” when it comes to providing important and timely information to customers who are elderly or live with disabilities, a new CRTC-commissioned report said. Released by the regulator on Friday, the report said information about accessibility and wireless services on websites, in advertising, and through customer service phone lines could be improved by making that information more prominent, explaining it in greater detail, and giving that cohort of Canadians easier ways to differentiate between services. While the companies’ performance varied on some aspects of accessibility service, they all struggled in the same area: sales representatives generally lacked the knowledge necessary to service this group of Canadians in a sufficient and timely manner. This discovery, however, was less prominent in BCE Inc. than in the others, the study found. While Bell’s agents “seemed uninformed as to what features might be helpful for specific disabilities,” the service on its dedicated accessibility phone line was “the best service provided across all four WSPs’ phone lines.” While Rogers Communications Inc. advertises an accessibility phone line, the limited number of calls done in the survey led the researchers to the impression that “we were not reaching a department dedicated” to those needs. “Our accessibility team is reviewing the report in detail, but we’re happy that Bell’s Accessibly Service Centre line provided the best service among the providers studied,” Bell spokesman Marc Choma said in an email. The CRTC recommended the providers improve their phone line customer service with additional training; make it easier to find the accessibility section of their websites; provide more detail on such things as availability, limits and costs for certain services; list and improve on the device features specifically for each disability; and improve accessibility advertising. The regulator noted some bright spots, such as Bell highlighting specific mobile phones they can provide for this group in their advertising, while providing a device features page on its online accessibility centre. Other WSPs, it said, must improve its device features list to service each disability better, for example. The CRTC noted some caveats: because it doesn’t include flankers, it reports a “limited view of potential issues and barriers faced by seniors and those with disabilities,” and no interviews were done with actual customers with disabilities or seniors, so the report includes assumptions about the needs of this group. The research was done by Forum Research in three phases and zeroed in on Rogers, Bell, Telus Corp., and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, but not their flanker brands. It included a website review, a digital advertising review, and a mystery shopper phone call circuit -- all done between February 18 and March 21, 2019. The companies, with the exception of Bell, did not respond in time to a request for comment about the report. Accessibility issues are one topic that a government-appointed panel reviewing the telecommunications and broadcasting acts will look at.

WSP customer service reps lacking accessibility knowledge: CRTC

Brief | September 13, 2019

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WSP customer service reps lacking accessibility knowledge: CRTC

Brief | September 13, 2019

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