Customer care performance scores are considerably higher among
wireless customers with additional plan features and Verizon ranked highest in the latest J.D.
Power and Associates 2010 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study- Volume 1.
J.D. Power goes into all the details of customer service by wireless carriers that sell cell phones and smartphones. There has been a reduction in billing problems mainly due to more customers with unlimited plans. Smartphone owners contacted their carrier more often and required more retail care.
Verizon Wireless ranks highest in wireless customer care performance
for a second consecutive time with a score of 753. Verizon Wireless
performs particularly well when contacts are resolved through phone
calls to CSRs and visits to wireless retail stores. In both phone calls
and in-person visits, Verizon Wireless service representatives perform
well with regard to identifying customer problems quickly and resolving
them efficiently. T-Mobile follows closely in the rankings with a score
of 752 and performs particularly well among calls that originate in the
ARS channel and are then transferred to a live service representative.
The study also finds several key wireless customer care patterns:
- The
rate of customers that report having contacted their carrier's care
units has decreased by 3 percent during the past six months, with AT&Tand Verizon customers stating particularly low contact rates.
- During
the past six months, the number of customer contacts pertaining to
credit issues such as overdue balances and credit extensions has
increased by 50 percent. - Despite owning phones with more
complicated feature sets, wireless customers with smartphones do not
rate customer care performance much lower than those with traditional
mobile phones (735 vs. 741, respectively). However, smartphone owners,
compared to traditional phone owners, are significantly more likely to
have contacted their carrier with an issue during the past six months
(49% vs. 40%, respectively) and it is less likely the issue was
resolved on the first contact via telephone (74% vs. 77%,
respectively). Regarding retail store contacts, smartphone owners also
require more than three additional minutes to resolve their issues than
do owners of traditional phones. - Sixteen percent of customer
phone contacts result from proactive calls or text messages originated
by the wireless carrier. This has proven to be an effective way of
limiting some potential issues from escalating, as customers who
contact their carrier after receiving these communications are more
satisfied (751, on average) than customers who do not receive proactive
contact from their carrier (738).
The
study finds that customer care performance scores are significantly
higher among customers with additional plan features, such as extended
handset warranties (770 on a 1,000-point scale, on average) and
unlimited calling to a predefined group of people (767, on average),
than among customers with base calling plans (699).
Similarly, customer
care performance scores average 749 among customers with unlimited text
and picture messaging options included in their plans. Among customers
with unlimited data usage, customer care performance scores average
764.
"Additional
plan options not only increase overall satisfaction by offering
customers access to newer features, but they may also reduce the number
and severity of problems customers experience that require contacting
the carrier," said Kirk Parsons, senior
director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "For
example, unlimited usage plans may reduce the number of contacts
pertaining to overages and incorrect billing, which helps to sustain
and improve levels of first-contact problem resolution and wait times.
Reducing some of these types of problems allows service representatives
to focus on resolving more complicated issues and optimizing their
customers' wireless experiences.
The
study also finds that overall customer care performance scores average
739 in 2010, an increase of 13 points during the past year. In
particular, customer care performance during phone calls to customer
service representatives and visits to retail facilities has improved
steadily due to increased first-contact problem resolution and shorter
wait times. More than three-fourths (77%) of calls to customer service
representatives are resolved on the first contact in 2010, compared
with just 66 percent in the 2009 Wireless Customer Care Performance
Study - Wave 1, issued in February 2009. Phone hold times average 5.16 minutes in 2010, compared with 6.58 minutes in February 2009.
Now
in its eighth year, the semiannual study provides a detailed report
card on how well wireless carriers service their customers in three
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.
The
2010 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study - Volume 1 is based on
responses from more than 9,500 wireless customers who contacted their
carrier's customer care department within the past six months. The
study was fielded from July through December 2009.
For more information, to read an article, or view wireless customer care ratings, please visit JDPower.com.
Overall Customer Care Index Ranking
(Based on a 1,000-point scale)
Provider Index Score JDPower.com Power Circle Ratings
-------- ----- For Consumers
-------------
Verizon Wireless 753 5
T-Mobile 752 5
Industry Average 739 3
AT&T 733 3
Sprint Nextel 721 2