2degrees has smashed the competition out of the ball park, claiming top spot in Canstar Blue's latest Consumer Satisfaction awards for broadband services.
The award comes just six months after the telco entered the broadband fray in July last year, following its acquisition of Snap earlier in the year.
Despite that, 2degrees managed to make a near clean sweep of five-star ratings in the awards, placing it well ahead of its rivals.
Jose George, Canstar New Zealand general manager, says 2degrees was the only brand to be awarded a five-star rating in any category, let alone six of them, and the first time since 2011 that a major telecommunications company has won top honours.
The company was awarded the maximum five stars for overall satisfaction, value for money, customer service, network performance, clarity of contract terms and bill clarity.
The only category where 2degrees missed out on five stars was flexibility of contract, where the company instead garnered four stars.
Slingshot managed four stars across six categories – overall satisfaction, value for money, customer service, network performance, clarity of contract terms and bill clarity – and three stars for flexibility of contract.
Trustpower gained four stars across the board with the exception of network performance, which gained three stars and contract flexibility, with just two stars.
Orcon hit the right buttons for overall satisfaction, value for money, network performance, clarity of contract terms and bill clarity, but was let down by its lack of contract flexibility and customer service, which both garnered just two stars.
New Zealand's two biggest telcos – Spark and Vodafone NZ – brought up the rear, each only gaining three stars for overall satisfaction.
Vodafone managed three stars across value for money, network performance, and contract and bill clarity, but only two in all other categories, while Spark – New Zealand's biggest internet service provider – could only manage three stars across customer service and contract and bill clarity, with just two stars for all other categories.
"2degrees' mantra has always been about keeping things simple, all while remaining affordable," George says.
"Consumers appreciate that 2degrees always go the extra mile in offering the best connection available, and upgrading customers for free if a better connection becomes available in future," he adds.
Stewart Sherriff, 2degrees chief executive, dubbed the win 'a fantastic result for 2degrees'.
"The team works very hard to deliver a great network and service, so a ranking like this from our customers shows we're doing the right thing in an extremely competitive market," Sherriff says.
The Canstar Blue survey, which covered a representative sample of 2500 Kiwi consumers, was based on nearly 2000 broadband user responses.
The survey also found that the number one driver for satisfaction when it comes to broadband providers is customer service (29%), closely followed by value for money and network performance at 24% each.
