Aug 19 2008
Verizon tops U.S. mobile service customer satisfaction surveys; sales pros still grumble about less than perfect coverage
In separate surveys conducted by PC Magazine (previewed in our interview with PC Mag’s Sascha Segan) and by J.D. Power, customer satisfaction for mobile phone services is highest for Verizon Wireless, topping all others in overall rankings.
There’s practically no difference between the top-ranked companies, however, with Verizon coming in with a score of 103, Alltel with 102, and T-Mobile at 100 in J.D. Power’s survey.
Both PC Magazine and J.D. Power list Sprint Nextel well below the industry average. J.D. Power found that Sprint’s score was a lowly 72, while PC Magazine listed Sprint dead last among all wireless service providers.
More than 11,000 participants were included in the J.D. Power survey. PC Magazine based their results on surveys of more than 19,000 readers.
J.D. Power also found that customers spent an average of 4.4 minutes on hold with customer service, a jump of 34% from the previous survey, while 49% of all wireless customers said they called in for help at least once, about the same rate reported last year. J.D. Power attributes this to the “increasingly complex” wireless phones and services available today.
I’m really happy with my Verizon wireless coverage and quality on my Treo. I’ve got a separate GSM phone for Europe. But I REALLY want an iPhone (without the problem chip that causes dropped calls, of course).
I can’t decide whether to make the switch. I know what I’ll be gaining. I just don’t know how much I’ll be giving up…
Thanks, Dave — if you asked me a month ago, I would have said to jump on the iPhone 3G, but now… I’m not so sure. We sales professionals just depend too much on our mobile phones to do our jobs. Given the problems Apple has had with iPhone 3G performance, with MobileMe, and with the most recent application glitches, I think it would be wise to wait, for now. I’m confident that Apple will overcome these issues, in time, but I can’t endorse the iPhone until they do.
Tim
Sprint creates special team to address low customer satisfaction scores: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9961