Alltel, T-Mobile and Verizon Tie for Highest Customer Care, Says JD Power

Overall wireless customer care
performance has improved considerably as customers report shorter hold
times and improved rates of problem resolution on the first contact,
compared with six months ago, according to the J.D. Power and
Associates 2009 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study-Volume 2 released today.

Alltel,
T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless rank highest in wireless customer care
performance, in a tie, each with a score of 747. Alltel performs
particularly well when contacts are resolved through customer visits to
the retail store and ARS, while T-Mobile's strength is in transferring
customers from an automated response system to a live service
representative. Verizon Wireless performs well with regard to
identifying customer problems quickly and resolving them efficiently
with service representatives. 

The
study finds that overall customer care performance has improved
considerably to 735 on a 1,000-point scale, up 12 points from the first
wave of the study released in February. Satisfaction improves across
all methods of contact, as a result of increased first-contact problem
resolution and shorter wait times. More than three-fourths (76%) of
calls to customer service are resolved on the first contact, compared
with just 66 percent six months ago. In addition, hold times now
average 5.55 minutes, compared with 6.58 minutes in February 2009.

The study also finds several key wireless customer care patterns:

• Nearly one-third of contacts pertain to the customer's cost of service.
• Among
  customers who contact their carrier by phone two to three times to
  resolve an issue, 17 percent report they are likely to switch wireless
  carriers in the future. In comparison, just 10 percent of customers are
  likely to switch when the issue is resolved in one contact.
• Fifteen
  percent of contacts result from calls or text messages originated by
  the wireless carrier. Those customers who contact their carrier after
  receiving these communications are more satisfied (744, on average),
  than customers who do not receive proactive contact from their carrier
  (730).  

Now in its seventh year, the semi-annual study provides a detailed report card
on how well wireless carriers service their customers in three
point-of-contact methods: telephone calls with a customer service
representative (CSR) and/or automated response system (ARS); visits to
a retail wireless store; and on the Web. Within each contact method,
the study measures satisfaction and processing issues such as
problem-resolution efficiency and hold-time duration.

"Satisfaction
improves considerably when customers spend less time on hold and more
time addressing their problems and inquiries with a customer service
representative," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless
services at J.D. Power and Associates. "In order to sustain and improve
these levels of satisfaction, carriers must ensure the usefulness of
their customer support systems, whether the contact is made over the
phone, in a store or online. This includes effectively answering
customer inquiries and accurately identifying those customers who need
to speak directly with a representative, based on the type and severity
of the problem they are trying to resolve."

"While each of the
highest-performing carriers has individual strengths, all are
successful in reaching the customer quickly," said Parsons. "All have
representatives who demonstrate high levels of courtesy, concern and
knowledge, which translates into effective problem resolution and
higher satisfaction levels among their customers."

The 2009 Wireless Customer Care Performance
Study-Volume 2 is based on responses from more than 12,000 wireless
customers who contacted their carrier's customer care department within
the past year. The study was fielded January through June 2009.