Executive summary

• The merger between Vodafone and Three will set the tone for the UK Telco sector this year. The Customer Effort Index shows that Vodafone is the best in class for CX but Three’s results leave a lot to be desired.

• We say

  Can the merger push Three higher up the table? How long will it be before the CEI records the tangible benefits? It's a very exciting time as the CEI has not before measured a Telco merger on this scale. Stay tuned for more.

• Spare a thought for Virgin Media. With an Overall Effort Score of 40 it is the lowest ranked Telco brand in the index, but with growth in all pillars that could be set to change.

How to use the Customer Effort Index

Customer Effort Scores for the quarter are presented in the rankings, ordered by highest Overall Effort Score first, to show which brand scored highest with its customers for that period. Individual brand ratings against the four pillars take us underneath that Overall Effort Score, with brand-specific explanatory analysis from the CEI Editorial team.

You can use the display above to toggle between score, ranking and individual pillars. Clicking 'Performance Tracker'  enables you to analyse the performance over time.

The Customer Effort Index is calculated using a self-referential scale that is recomputed every wave based on what the minimum and maximum values are. This enables us to see how each brand is performing compared to the others within the data set. See About for more on the methodology.