Research from market researchers Kantar Worldpanel ComTech has revealed the long term impact of the TalkTalk hack back in October 2015.
Consumer insight director Imran Choudhary commented: “TalkTalk continues to offer some of the most attractive promotions across the home services market and almost a third of its new customers did choose it for this reason, but there can be no doubt that it lost potential customers following the major data hack. If it’s to recover from recent events TalkTalk will need to offer more than just good value.”
TalkTalk saw its share of the home services (broadband, landline and television) market fall by 4.4 percentage points quarter on quarter, losing out on new customers to other providers. 7% of existing broadband customers also moved to a different provider in the fourth quarter of 2015, following the hack.
Other providers benefitted across the board from the fall in market share. Plusnet and BT both saw an increase in market share at the end of Q4. Virgin Media made small gains in the broadband market but fell slightly in other areas. Sky’s share of the home services market, in terms of new acquisitions, fell slightly due weak performance in the home broadband market.
This data needs to serve as a wakeup call for companies in all industries, that they need to be certain their information and their customer’s information is secure. Consumers are increasingly realising the value of their security, and will not risk losing their money or data.