Kantar Worldpanel: customers have ‘lost faith’ in TalkTalk

Customers have “lost faith” in UK operator TalkTalk following the personal data hack on the company in October, according to new research by Kantar Worldpanel.

The report claims that TalkTalk’s share of the UK home services market fell by 4.4 percentage points quarter-over-quarter in Q4 in terms of new customers, with the firm accounting for 9.0% of this market – compared to 28.6% for BT, 28.3% for Sky and 11.1% for Virgin Media.

“TalkTalk continues to offer some of the most attractive promotions across the home services market and almost a third of its new customers did choose it for this reason, but there can be no doubt that it lost potential customers following the major data hack. If it’s to recover from recent events TalkTalk will need to offer more than just good value,” said Imran Choudhary, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel.

According to the research, TalkTalk also lost existing customers in Q4, with 7% of its broadband base opting for another provider. BT was the biggest winner, picking up 40% of this lost share, according to the report.

“BT continued to perform well in the final quarter of 2015, driven by further strong performances in TV and broadband. The provider reached a share of 30% for the broadband market moving further ahead of Sky, its nearest competitor. It also continued to reap the rewards of its successful sports proposition. With the football season now in full swing, BT Sport has built on the good work it did last summer raising awareness of its sports content, including Champions League and Premier League matches,” said Choudhary.   

“In contrast to TalkTalk, BT felt the benefits of an improved perception of reliability, with 12% of new customers saying their primary reason for joining was because they saw it as a trusted supplier – twice the market average.”