Developing Public Awareness

CCTS is an independent agency created to work with consumers and telecommunications industry participants to resolve consumer and small business complaints. We use formal and informal methods to assist consumers and providers to resolve their disputes. When these disputes cannot be resolved amicably, we use our authority to make non-binding Recommendations and, where necessary, Decisions (which are binding on the provider) to bring closure to these complaints.

We recognize that public awareness of our existence and the service that we offer is crucial to our effectiveness in the marketplace. Thus we are committed to working with all of our stakeholders, and particularly consumers, consumer advocacy groups, and our telecommunications service provider member companies (TSPs), to:

• increase public awareness of the existence of CCTS, our role and mandate, and the dispute resolution service that we offer consumers, both individual and small business;
  and
• add clarity to the internal complaint-handling processes offered by our member companies – to make the process more transparent and effective.

To achieve these objectives, CCTS is embarking on a project designed to increase public awareness, and we are committed to taking the steps described in this document to achieve the objective. Our member companies have agreed to participate in this project and they too have committed to putting in place various measures to clarify their own complaint-handling processes, and to ensure that consumers with unresolved complaints are informed of the option to request that CCTS review their complaint, at the conclusion of the final stage of the internal complaint resolution process.

We plan to phase in our outreach activities over time and in stages, in order to ensure that our efforts are focused and effective. We intend to monitor the effectiveness of these measures on an ongoing basis and make any adjustments that are required as a result. Finally, we will undertake a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of these efforts following the completion of the two phases described below, and determine what further activities may be necessary.

Phase 1 – August 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010

In Phase 1 CCTS will develop the material and build the infrastructure needed to bring its message to Canadians. This will involve two related projects:

1. CCTS Website – We believe that the website is the tool of first resort for consumers looking for information and assistance with their concerns. In order to meet their needs we intend to redesign and redevelop our website to accomplish the following objectives:
   • Modernize the “look and feel”;
   • Make the site as “user friendly” as possible, and achieve the highest standard of accessibility;
   • Improve our current online complaint form to make filing a complaint easier and allow us to capture more information for statistical purposes;
   • Add substantially more information about CCTS, with links to CCTS Members, the CRTC, and other relevant resources; and
   • Improve our ability to provide information to consumers and communicate with our TSP Members.

2. Develop, design and publish written materials (a “communications package”) providing plain language information about the mandate and services offered by CCTS, for electronic distribution by CCTS (and TSPs, upon request) to consumers, consumer groups, government and regulators, elected officials and the media, and at conferences, seminars and trade shows.

   Our TSP Member companies have committed to take certain steps during this time frame to enhance their customers’ awareness of CCTS. Here is what they have agreed to do:

3. Those TSPs that publish “white pages” directories will, in future editions of those directories, insert a reference to CCTS.
   • The size and specific placement of this reference will be left to the discretion of the TSP, but the TSPs agree that the notice will be reasonably prominent relative to other notices of a similar nature and placed in a logical manner in a location where a customer with a potential complaint is likely to find it. Generally, the logical placement would be in the section of the introductory pages of the white pages addressing comments, concerns and complaints. By way of example, the notice will be similar in prominence to the references on page 10 of the local Ottawa directory to the Bell Executive Office of Customer Relations and the CRTC (see attached).
   • The text of the notice will be as follows:
     Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS)

     CCTS is an agency independent of the telecommunications industry, whose
     mandate is to resolve complaints of individual and small business retail customers about their telecommunications services. If you have a complaint about your services, including local or long distance telephone service, wireless telephone service, or Internet service, you must first try to resolve it directly with your service provider. If you have done so and have been unable to reach a satisfactory resolution, CCTS may be able to help you, free of charge

     To learn more about CCTS, you may visit its website at www.ccts-cprst.ca or call toll-free at 1-888-221-1687.1

4.  The TSPs will make reference to CCTS on their websites, and provide a link from their site to the CCTS website.
   • Most TSPs have indicated an intention to locate the link on web pages reached by “Legal” links (generally in the footer) or “Customer Care” links (generally fairly prominent in the header or in the body of the home page). Wherever the TSP decides to place it, the link must be easy to find, of reasonable size, and readily accessible to any site visitor.
   • Where the TSP’s individual website permits, the CCTS link may also be searchable using logical search terms, such as “complaints” or “CCTS”.
   • The notice will be in the same terms as the white pages directory notice.
5. The TSPs will provide a message referencing CCTS on customer bills (whether paper or electronic), or optionally by way of a bill insert:
   • The message will appear at least semi-annually, and each TSP must have issued its first notice within six months of the date upon which the CCTS Board of Directors approves this Plan. The TSPs will inform CCTS of the anticipated date of their initial bill notice or insert.
   • Placement of the CCTS notice on customer bills will be left to the discretion of the Member, provided that the notice is reasonably prominent relative to other notices of a similar nature. It is anticipated that many Members would place the notice at the bottom of the last page of an invoice.
   • The billing notice will read as follows: Do you have a complaint regarding your telecommunications service that we haven’t been able to resolve? The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) may be able to assist you: www.ccts-cprst.ca or 1-888-221-1687.
   • An optional third sentence for the notice will be available for use at the TSPs’ discretion. This third sentence would indicate that the CCTS does not address complaints relating to broadcasting services or regulated telecommunications services.
6. In dealing with customers who have come to the TSP with a customer service issue orcomplaint, the TSPs will ensure that their staffs inform the customer of the recourse offered by CCTS in the event of an unresolved complaint.
   • Customers will be referred to CCTS by TSPs’ personnel after a complaint has been escalated to the final complaint-handling level within the Member’s organization. Front line complaints-handling representatives will not be required to make a customer aware of CCTS in order to facilitate resolution of the dispute directly between the TSP and the customer, and in order to prevent the premature referral of complaints to CCTS.
   • Each TSP will inform customers on its website of the various steps that make up its internal complaint-handling process, so that customers can assess the progress of their complaint and CCTS can monitor that referrals are being appropriately made.
7. TSPs will have four months from the date this Plan is approved by the CCTS Board of Directors to implement the measures described in sections 4 and 6 above.

 

Phase 2 – February 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010

The second phase of the Plan involves coordinated outreach to Canadians through various
means, including:

1. Government Services:
   • Service Canada – we will provide our communications package to Service Canada and ask to have CCTS included in the database available to call centre operators when dealing with calls from Canadians on the national “1-800-O-Canada” number. The goal is to ensure that Service Canada operators direct callers to CCTS when their concerns fall within the CCTS mandate;
   • Canadian Consumer Information Gateway – we will approach the Office of Consumer Affairs to provide comprehensive information for their front line officers and website about the role of CCTS, and ensure that their front line staff has access to as much information about CCTS as possible, including detailed referral information; and
   • We will determine the availability of similar organizations at the provincial level and approach them with the same materials and with the same objectives.
2. Elected Officials: We will provide our communications package to all federal MPs and provincial/territorial MPPs/MLAs through their constituency offices. Our objectives will be:
   • to inform elected officials about the existence, role and mandate of CCTS, in order to assist them in directing appropriate constituent concerns to CCTS. By creating and maintaining relationships with constituency offices, they will have the information they need at their fingertips to best serve their clients when CCTS-related questions are brought to them; and
   • the inclusion of information about CCTS in written communications to constituents (website, householders etc.) to inform Canadians more broadly about CCTS.
3. Outreach to similar organizations – Both Australia and the United Kingdom have telecommunications industry ombudservices, and while there are differences in their structures, their challenges for reaching out to consumers and other stakeholders are similar. Also, Canada has seen a growth in the number of both public and private sector ombudsman organizations. We will create good working relationships with these organizations, most of which operate with challenges similar to ours. As a newer organization, we will welcome their input and research their communications strategies with a view to exchanging knowledge and information about the communications strategies which prove most effective.

Approved by the CCTS Board of Directors on July 21, 2009

^[1] All of the “notification” texts will be made available to the TSPs in both English and French. TSPs will communicate with their customers in the language with which they normally communicate with the customer.