Many start-ups are unimpressed with large broadband providers and are looking to smaller telecoms businesses for support.
A study of 1,000 business owners from across the UK found that 27 per cent believed the level of support they received from firms such as Sky, Virgin and BT was below average while four per cent regarded it as very poor.
Only 26 per cent were satisfied with the level of service they received and just 16 per cent rated it as ‘very good’.
Small telecoms providers achieved higher customer satisfaction ratings.
Around 35 per cent rated the quality of customer service as good and a fifth said the level of service was ‘very good’.
Two-thirds of firms signed up with a small company felt the quality of customer service was a big plus and 67 per cent felt the services were tailored to their business requirements.
Only 16 per cent of those signed up with a large firm cited the level of support offered as a key benefit while just a fifth felt the supplier could meet their business needs.
“Broadband and internet connection is an important service for business customers, with many companies greatly relying on the service in order to function on a day-to-day basis,” said Richard Smylie, digital marketing manager at Woav, which sells business broadband and phone line deals.
“It’s vital that, if something should go wrong, they are able to pick up the phone, speak to a helpful member of staff, and have the problem resolved quickly.
“When it comes to the human element, it appears the large market dominators are actually falling behind on customer satisfaction and support.”
However 68 per cent of large providers’ customers were happy with the speed and strength of their broadband connection while 57 per cent believed they were receiving value for money.
Sky customers suffered outages on Wednesday while BT customers also recently suffered problems over two days.
A Virgin Media Business expansion is to connect thousands of companies in business parks to its ‘Project Lightning’ network.