Family plans binding happy customers to carriers

Family plans are the glue that keeps customers sticky, according to the most recent survey of customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates-and in households where family members share minutes, they are substantially happier with their wireless service than those who do not.
The survey found that almost 50% of households with wireless service have shared minutes among family members, up from 21% in 2003. And customers who shared a family plan were less likely to say that they were “definitely” or “probably” going to switch wireless service providers in the next year.
Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates, affirmed the commonly accepted wisdom that family plans help lower churn rates.
“It’s no surprise that more carriers are offering family-share service plans, since these family plans appear to not only boost overall satisfaction but also lower switching intent,” Parsons said. “If you have three or four family members on a plan, you tend to think twice before going to another carrier.”
Meanwhile, he noted, users benefit from lower overall household wireless bills and the buy-one-get-three handset deals that carriers lately have been proffering to target families.
T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless continued to dominate the customer satisfaction survey. T-Mobile USA received the highest ranking in five of the six U.S. regions, although it lost out to Verizon Wireless in the Mid-Atlantic area. The two carriers tied for the top spot in the Southwest and Northeast, and ended up in a three-way top ranking with U.S. Cellular Corp. in the North Central region. Alltel Corp. and T-Mobile USA both ranked highest in the Southeast. T-Mobile USA performed particularly well in customer service, cost and billing, while Verizon Wireless tended to do well in call quality and brand image.
The semi-annual survey was based on responses from more than 22,000 wireless users during the months of March and June 2007.