Working with customers
Annual Report
August 1, 2024 – July 31, 2025
The CCTS values customer feedback. It helps us ensure that our complaint-handling process is accessible, professional, fair, and impartial. Feedback guides how we improve and deliver our services. This section provides a snapshot of what we heard from customers over the past year.
Customer survey results
We survey customers who have used our service during the year to ask them how we’re doing. This helps us focus our efforts for improvement. For example, customer feedback helps us to assess the effectiveness of the public awareness initiatives we require Participating Service Providers (PSPs) to implement.
In 2024–25, we received more than 5,300 survey responses from customers. We are very pleased to report that customers continue to be overwhelmingly satisfied with the service they receive from CCTS staff and with the ease of filing a complaint.
Note: Percentages are rounded.
What customers said about the CCTS
We asked our customers:
Is it important to have an independent organization to deal with telecom and TV complaints that has the authority to provide customers with compensation?
Was it easy to file your complaint with the CCTS?
“I am pleased and grateful for the existence and mandate of CCTS, as they have always been helpful and impartial in resolving customers’ complaints.”
How effective was the CCTS at providing a transparent process, including clear and transparent reasons for and decision-making regarding your complaint?
Feedback on whether the service you received from CCTS representatives met your expectations.
Feedback on whether the service you received from our complaint resolution officers met your expectations.
“I would not have any positive results from [my provider] unless I went through CCTS. I felt relief with your help. Until I went with you, I received no communication or response from [my provider]. I am grateful for your agency!”
Feedback on overall satisfaction with various aspects of our process.
Timelines: Did we complete our work in a reasonable amount of time?
Professionalism: Were we professional, knowledgeable and courteous?
Impartiality: Did we act without favouritism to either you or your service provider?
“I am very thankful for your help. It is very difficult to get to the appropriate level of authority to resolve issues with Canadian telecommunications companies without some help.”
What customers said about service provider public awareness activities
How did you find out about the CCTS?
Service providers must notify customers about the CCTS at a specified point during their internal complaint-handling process. We asked our customers:
Did your service provider tell you about the CCTS during your efforts to resolve the problem?
Service providers are required to print a prescribed message about the CCTS on customer bills four times a year. We asked our customers:
In the last year, did you see a notice about the CCTS on a bill you received from your service provider?
Service providers are required to place a prescribed notice about the CCTS in a clear, easy-to-find spot on their website and include a link to the CCTS website. We asked our customers:
Did you see a dedicated complaint section on your service provider’s website giving you information about the CCTS?
We require PSPs to inform their customers about the CCTS. Each year, the CCTS audits selected PSP websites and documents to assess compliance. When we identify non-compliance, we engage with those providers to educate them and rectify non-compliance with our provider obligations to promote awareness of the CCTS.
Read more about our public awareness compliance work in our 2024 Compliance Report Cards.
What customers said about their attempts to resolve complaints with service providers
We asked customers about their interactions with service providers before the CCTS became involved.
How long did you try to resolve your problem directly with your service provider before bringing your complaint to the CCTS?
More than 40% of respondents said they tried for more than two months to resolve their problem directly with their service provider before turning to the CCTS for help.
How many levels of escalation (front line customer service, supervisor, manager, etc.) did your complaint go through with the service provider before you filed a complaint with the CCTS?
Over 80% of customers experienced two or more levels of escalation before filing a complaint.
Public awareness of the CCTS
Raising public awareness of the CCTS is important work. We remain committed to increasing the profile of our service so that consumers across Canada are better informed about their right to recourse and how the CCTS can help when needed.
This past year, the CCTS used a market and data-driven approach to sustain, refine, and scale up public awareness tactics that we began implementing in 2023–24.
We are happy to share that we continue to observe strong progress in our public awareness efforts, including a 13% year-over-year increase in CCTS website traffic. Customer survey data showed a significant increase in the proportion of customers who discovered the CCTS via social media.
From media and online engagement to stakeholder collaboration and more, we have been hard at work.
- Media coverage: We added new distribution methods to extend our media reach and distribute information to relevant audiences. These efforts delivered a three-fold increase in potential reach compared to 2023–24 and a substantial improvement in the number of news sources that published our content. We noted coverage in small community publications and outlets reporting in languages other than English and French, giving the CCTS more exposure in diverse markets across Canada.
- Podcasts: We promoted the CCTS in a pilot experiment through podcast and music streaming platform advertising to reach more telecom and TV consumers. Podcasts provide a high degree of listener trust and can help build brand awareness in a non-intrusive way among engaged niche audiences.
- Promotional content: Consumer-focused content about the CCTS potentially reached around 45 million people across Canada through print and digital articles, short videos, and radio ads.
- Partnerships: We worked with our valued partners to explore collaboration opportunities and reach a wider audience across Canada. In April, we participated in our first public webinar with Option consommateurs, a non-profit that defends consumer interests, as part of their series for seniors. This gave our team a valuable opportunity to connect effectively with an audience that can benefit from knowing about our service and their right to recourse. Through this partnership, we were able to inform audiences during the webinar, which had nearly 300 registrants and the post-event recordings. We reached many more through the Option consommateurs website and social media channels.
- Vulnerable consumers: This past year, we expanded our activities to inform harder-to-reach consumers who may have challenges navigating the marketplace. We began audience mapping to guide our strategic communications plan to connect with specific consumer segments across Canada.
Gaining insights about customer experiences
Our Consumer Advisory Panel helps us understand the diverse needs and challenges of telecom and TV consumers across the country. The panel brings together several groups representing a diversity of vulnerable, hard-to-reach consumers and consumers from geographically diverse regions across Canada. We met with the panel twice in 2024-25, during which we had the opportunity to engage with nine groups.
Meeting with the panel serves four key purposes:
- Gain a deeper understanding of the needs of vulnerable, disadvantaged, and hard-to-reach consumers.
- Collect insights on key issues within the telecom and TV sector that may impact complaints and complaint volumes.
- Help consumer groups understand our mandate, operations, and reporting more clearly.
- Collaborate with and expand our outreach efforts to consumers across the country.
During this year’s sessions, we heard about several top-of-mind issues that affect customers’ experiences with their telecom and TV service providers:
- We heard that consumers are navigating a sustained trend of billing-related complaints, including price increases and contract disputes. This has been a prominent issue over the last few years and reflects broader financial pressures that households face.
- We discovered useful insights about topics where we could provide more guidance and clarity for consumers. For example, groups suggested that we incorporate additional consumer scenarios into our reports and our public awareness work to enhance a tangible understanding of our work and increase public engagement.
- Consumer groups expressed concerns about service providers not informing customers about their right to the CCTS’ services. They underscored the importance of service providers taking part in public awareness efforts. In November 2024, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reminded providers about their responsibility to inform customers about the CCTS and stated its view that Canadians are not being made aware of the CCTS effectively. The CRTC requested information from the industry to determine whether further regulatory action is necessary. In October 2025, the CRTC launched a new proceeding to help ensure that Canadians with unresolved complaints get timely and clear information from their service provider about the CCTS.
Consumer groups signalled continued support for our public awareness efforts and emphasized the importance of trust-building and community engagement for effective outreach within specific communities.
“I believe CCTS is the best thing ever a country can have for their citizens… thanks a lot for helping me out.”
Our commitment to accessibility
Providing accessible customer service so people with disabilities can contact us easily and use our services is a core value and a key operating principle in our strategic plan. Our commitment is deeply rooted and reflects the principles of the Accessible Canada Act and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (our head office is in Ontario). These two Acts guide us in upholding values of independence, dignity, integration, and equality of opportunity.
We consult with accessibility groups and underrepresented and underserved communities every year. This helps us to understand how we can better serve all telecom and TV customers in Canada. In 2024–25, we convened a forum with representatives from six accessibility groups:
- We shared how we have improved our website after doing accessibility scans and user testing.
- The participating groups emphasized that to reach specific audiences effectively, campaign design needs to prioritize accessibility during the early development stages. Building for accessibility ensures that content is inclusive and engaging for diverse audiences — including those with visual, auditory, cognitive, or language-related needs.
- We discussed how co-designing communication outputs with people who have lived experience is essential for effective and inclusive program development.
- Participants offered to work with us to promote awareness of who we are and what we can do for customers.
Customers can reach the CCTS through accessible telephone and e-services, such as:
- TTY (teletypewriter)
- VRS (Video Relay Service)
We offer to communicate in the most accessible way to customers upon request. Visit our website to learn more about our updated Multi Year Accessibility Plan and Integrated Accessibility Policy.
We look forward to continuing our conversations with consumer advocacy and accessibility groups, as they play a vital role in deepening our understanding of the customer experience and the specific needs of vulnerable consumers.
“Very helpful! I truly believe my issue would not have been resolved without the CCTS. My only concern is how many people out there do not know about the CCTS. Thank you for all your help!”