New quality rules for customer service departments

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. Companies covered by the law must have a customer service that is free, effective, accessible, inclusive and non-discriminatory, allowing customers to file complaints, claims, incidents and inquiries and receive their resolution.
2. The law applies to companies providing basic services of general interest (water, gas, electricity, transport, postal services, telecommunications and financial services) and to large companies selling goods or services to consumers, whether individually or as a group of companies.
3. Companies must accept the same channel through which the contractual relationship started and, at a minimum, postal, phone and electronic channels. Fixed establishments open to the public must also accept complaints and claims.
4. Answering machines or bots cannot be the only means of customer service. At the customer's request, service by a real person must be guaranteed, 95 % of requests must be answered on average in under three minutes, and calls cannot be cut off due to long waiting times.
5. Phone calls cannot cost more than a call to a standard geographic landline or cell phone line, and redirecting free phone numbers to paid numbers is banned. People with disabilities or older people will get priority service and accessible alternative channels.
6. Every inquiry, complaint, claim or incident will receive an identification key and, if the customer asks, a written receipt on a durable medium. The resolution must be reasoned and communicated in the same language in which it was filed.
7. Inquiries, complaints, claims and incidents must be resolved within a maximum of 15 business days. Those about service outages in continuous basic services must be answered within two hours, and those about billing or wrongful charges within five days.
8. Companies must implement an annual system to evaluate service quality, audited by an accredited entity, and publish the documentation on their website. Companies with fewer than 250 workers and revenue or assets below the legal thresholds may do so every two years.

Who it affects

• Consumers and users: They will have more effective, free and accessible customer service, with maximum response times and proof of their complaints.
• Companies providing basic services of general interest: They must adapt their customer service to the new minimum quality levels within twelve months of the law taking effect.
• Large companies selling goods or services to consumers: They must comply with the quality parameters, the evaluation system and the annual audit, with flexible adaptation possible for small and medium-sized companies.
• Financial institutions: They are governed by their sector rules, which are strengthened by the amendment of Law 44/2002, raising the requirements for their customer service departments.
• Telecommunications operators: They are governed by their sector rules, amended by Disposición final quinta to adapt customer service to the sector's particular features.

Words worth knowing

Soporte duradero (durable medium)

Any means that allows information to be stored stably for later reference, such as an email or a PDF.

Servicio de tracto sucesivo (continuous service)

A service provided continuously or periodically over time, such as electricity, water or phone service.

Resolución extrajudicial de conflictos (out-of-court dispute resolution)

Systems for settling disputes without going to trial, such as arbitration or public bodies' complaint services.

Entidad Nacional de Acreditación (National Accreditation Entity)

A public body that certifies the technical competence of auditing companies.

Línea de tarificación especial (special-rate phone line)

A phone number whose cost to the caller is higher than a normal call to a landline or cell phone.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries