118 DIRECTORY ENQUIRIES ONLINE TRACKING SERVICE LAUNCHED www.118tracker.com

PERFORMANCE HOUSE LTD THE GLOBAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND BENCHMARKING CONSULTANCY RELEASE INITIAL 118 DIRECTORY ENQUIRIES STUDY RESULTS AND LAUNCH 118tracker.com

(PRWEB) August 1, 2003 -- In December 2002 the existing 192 and 153 (international) directory enquiry services changed, as explained by this extract from Oftels website www.newdirectoryenquiries.com

From now on, more organisations will be able to provide their own directory enquiry services. With some offering different features and others offering different prices, you will now have more choice about which new directory enquiry services you want to use."

More choice! that is something that we would all enjoy, especially when the choice is clearly promoted and differences identified. Anyone watching television over the last few weeks will have seen adverts for some of the new directory enquiry services, which all began with 118 888 and 118 118 . However, scores of companies besides the ones buying advertising time have registered new 118 numbers and many of them are already up and running.

Performance House Ltds recent tracking study clearly shows, with 84% of new directory users choosing their new service provider by memory alone, that the choice we currently have is dictated by the organisation willing to mass market their offering. Is this freedom of choice? The picture has suddenly become very confusing. Each company having its own set of tariffs which vary greatly, making it almost impossible for the consumer to have any idea how much they are paying.

It is fair to say that choosing a service provider simply because it is one you have seen advertised is often far from ideal and most consumers given the choice would prefer to make an informed decision based on the relative cost, quality and offering of each company.

Performance House Ltds tracking service gives a secure and objective benchmark analysis to ensure best practice prevails and organisations can clearly identify and define their offering.

Performance House Ltd is currently tracking consumer awareness, service, efficiencies and costs of the up-and-running 118 Directory Enquiry providers. Service is analysed against the Performance House Service Mark which uses the weighted variables, Welcome, Communication, Knowledge, Ownership and Close to determine and benchmark the quality of service.

In addition the time taken by each company to fulfil our request and the total cost of the call. Our study has discovered that the range of costs and quality is as great and varied as the plethora of companies offering 118 services.

The Oftel website claims This website provides you with information to help you benefit from these new services including a listing of the UK and International Directory enquiry services now available." The problem is however, few people will want to have to check a web listing before knowing what number to dial to simply get the phone number for a taxi, or a pizza delivery, marketing directors must take this into consideration when positioning their particular 118 offering.

Ranking
Company
1   Telco - 118877
2   118 UK - 118888
3   Share UK - 118499
4   One Tel -- 118111
5   Yellow Pages - 118247

Shockingly, the average call to the most expensive service was over three times the cost of an average call to the cheapest, 118 UK. Some companies make the caller aware of the costs other companies dont. We didnt encounter a service that was consistent in making customers aware of how much they will be paying if they choose to be connected to the number they have requested.

The quality of the service in terms of accuracy, friendliness and knowledge vary greatly also, with Yellow Pages, o2 and Orange leading the way. Yellow Pages for example is run by friendly cheerful and skilled staff who greet you warmly and seem genuinely pleased to be able to help you, in contrast to some of the more advertised services that are unwelcoming and almost robotic, treating you like the next in line to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Of course efficiency is important especially when you are being charged by the second but when it coincides with an inability to resolve a query then the importance of efficiency is limited.

Telco comes out top of our ranking by being close to the top in both service and low cost, whereas 118 UK in second place is the cheapest service with the lowest service mark for quality. The top four companies were the fastest in delivering the number requested. Only Telco managed to achieve both value and quality, which is why they currently top the league table.

What of BT? Surely as the company with the experience in this field their service should surpass the competition. Well they are the third least expensive but leave much room for improvement in the quality of the service they currently offer on both 192 and 118 500.

In conclusion, Telco is currently showing best practice, being the only company to balance value and service, some are expensive but excellent while others are affordable but lacking knowledge, the choice is yours.

There is no simple way to sum up this market sector, due to its confusing variety, but safe to say, the most advertised services are the most recognised 58% of respondents named The Number 118118. Quality of service provided by these marketing winners is not currently showing best practice, and you could end up paying over the odds for obtaining a telephone number.

You can obtain access to the full data set created during this months study by purchasing this initial report direct from Performance House Ltd for 395 + VAT.

Performance House Ltd the global performance management and benchmarking consultancy specialise in creating best practice frameworks and supporting the growth of quality throughout all communications.

Prepared by:

Rob Dunphy
Marketing Director - Performance House Ltd
rob.dunphy@performance-house.com
The Total Performance Measure"