Wireless customers unhappy with their carriers’ customer care are more likely to switch service providers, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ 2003 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study.
The group found that 26 percent of those who rated their latest customer-care experience as below average are “definitely” or “probably” likely to switch from their current carrier in the next year, while just 7 percent of those who experienced above-average customer care are likely to switch. J.D. Power said 55 percent of wireless users have contacted customer care in the past year-76 percent by phone, 21 percent at a retail store and 3 percent via e-mail or Internet.
Nextel Communications Inc. and Verizon Wireless ranked highest in overall customer care, with T-Mobile USA Inc., AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. all also ranking above the industry average. Alltel and Sprint PCS were below the industry average.
J.D. Power emphasized carriers should minimize the number of contacts necessary to solve a problem and reduce time on hold, which averages more than five minutes.
J.D. Power’s study was based on the experiences of 16,800 wireless users who judged customer service based on service representative interaction (44 percent), resolution contact frequency (31 percent), ARS processing/navigation (13 percent) and hold time duration (12 percent).
As far as services offered, wireless users most desire photo messaging and push-to-talk, according to a separate consumer survey from Zelos Group. Nearly half of the 1,300 survey respondents said they would seek an integrated digital camera in their next mobile phones. Of the consumers who subscribe to carriers other than Nextel, the only provider of push-to-talk service at the time of the survey, 40 percent expressed an interest in using the service, and of those, 45 percent ranked it as the feature that is of most interest.
“We find the breadth of support for the push-to-talk feature especially noteworthy,” said Seamus McAteer, senior analyst at Zelos Group. “This essentially debunks the commonly held assertion that everyone who wants push-to-talk is already a Nextel subscriber.”
The survey also showed text messaging has become more mainstream in the United States, with more than 25 percent of those surveyed saying they have sent a text message, and 12 percent saying they text at least once a week. Bluetooth ranked last in the list of top 10 features users want on their next mobile phones, with only 13 percent of respondents choosing it in their top five. Mobile gaming did not fare well, with few respondents interested in paying for game content.
