TalkTalk shows signs of recovering with 80,000 new customers

TalkTalk have gained a 4% growth in subscribers from 2017 so far this year, seeing their total number of customers rise to 4.2 million. They also reported an increase in revenue to £382 million, up 4.1%.

These latest figures put the company on course to reach their 15% annual growth target, and come after various improvements to the service have been made.

TalkTalk CEO Tristia Harrison said: "We are pleased to have delivered strong customer and headline revenue growth in the first quarter and we remain firmly on track to deliver at least 150,000 net adds this financial year."

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Gaining new customers

No doubt these figures are a welcome relief for the company who experienced a drop in profits last year and sees them back to their 2014 subscriber numbers before they started losing customers in 2015 and 2016 after a number of customer data breaches.

And since the problems they faced with their Indian call centre in 2017, TalkTalk have taken steps to improve their customer service as well as strengthening their product offerings.

In January they launched the UK's lowest fixed price plan. This was then followed by the UK's cheapest fast broadband plan a couple of months later. While their most recent offers saw a fresh helping of budget broadband deals and a cut price Sky Sports deal.

These seem to be going down well. In addition to overall customer numbers going up, the company also reported an increased demand for its fixed price plans, with the total number of customers on such plans rising from 100,000 to 2.1 million.

Given the recent surge in customers and revenue it does look like the tide may finally be turning for TalkTalk.

Customer service improvements

And while recent Ofcom reports into customer satisfaction and complaints haven't seen TalkTalk fare too well, it's worth pointing out the data covered is actually from 2017 - and TalkTalk have already made improvements to their customer service.

A spokeswoman for TalkTalk said: "While these historical numbers by Ofcom are disappointing, it doesn't reflect the current customer experience."

In addition to moving it's call centre outside of India, TalkTalk have also introduced new ways for customers to contact the company including a messaging facility through the MyTalkTalk app as well as SMS messaging - a support tool already used by Plusnet, which they've previously said customers prefer as it removes having to wait on the telephone.

TalkTalk has also improved many of its existing services, including upgrading upload speeds for fibre customers from 2Mb to 10Mb, and introducing a new Wi-fi Hub which offers their fastest and most reliable connection to date.

The future is fibre

Of the 80,000 new customers added over the past three months, as many as 67,000 were to fibre broadband connections.

But while these part-fibre deals are bringing "lifetime value with materially low churn and cost to serve" for the company, TalkTalk are also investing in full-fibre as a future growth strategy.

They recently committed to spending £1.5 billion on full-fibre gigabit connections to reach 3 million premises. With Harrison praising the Government's recent pledge for nationwide full-fibre coverage by 2033 as a "significant development".