Nearly 80 percent of wireless shoppers said they prefer to use cell-phone company Web sites to compare plans and products compared with visiting retail stores for such comparisons, according to a study conducted by Keynote Systems Inc.
The study noted that in terms of mainstream wireless providers, T-Mobile USA’s Web site was perceived as the most “customer focused,” driven by the site’s “excellent performance in plan shopping and phone shopping capabilities. T-Mobile USA’s site also ranked first in visual appeal and was commended for its online coverage map.
The customer experience study was based on research with 2,000 online consumers as they interacted with 10 leading cell-phone service provider or aggregator Web sites. Those sites were operated by Boost Mobile L.L.C., Cingular Wireless L.L.C., LetsTalk, Nextel Communications Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc., Sprint Corp., T-Mobile USA Inc., Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. and Wirefly.
Keynote noted that a companion study that included more than 6,500 separate measurements of the Web sites during a three-week period found that aggregator sites Wirefly, Lets Talk and T-Mobile USA’s carrier owned site were the three best-performing sites for overall customer satisfaction.
Keynote said that the aggregator sites scored well due to their strength of selection as well as their plan and phone shopping processes. The firm added that those factors were cited by consumers as the leading drivers of customer experience and conversion, and ultimately driving the likelihood to purchase. The aggregators performed well in the study despite close to 80 percent of online consumers saying they had never heard of the sites prior to participating in the survey.
The Keynote rankings also found that Web sites operated by Virgin Mobile USA, Sprint and Qwest were ranked highest in reliability, while Virgin Mobile, Qwest and Cingular were rated highest in responsiveness. Keynote added that while overall response times were strong, several leading brands reported significant reliability issues and outages with one site unavailable to consumers more than 4 percent of the time.
“In an industry where the reach and reliability of the wireless network is of paramount importance, companies need to make sure their Web sites are responsive and available,” said Ben Rushlo, manager of professional services at Keynote. “If the Web site performs poorly consumers might translate that into a reflection on the brand and the wireless network itself.”
