T-Mobile gets top customer care honors from J.D. Power and Associates

T-Mobile USA Inc. once again held the top position for customer service among wireless operators, followed by Verizon Wireless, in the newest J.D. Power and Associates survey. Not surprisingly, customers who had contact with an actual person rather than an automated response system were most satisfied.
This is the second time in row T-Mobile has garnered top honors for customer service. The nation’s fourth-largest wireless carrier got a report card of 758 on a 1,000-point scale, followed by Verizon Wireless, which scored 743; just above the industry average score of 739. Sprint Nextel Corp., which has been trying to improve its customer service, came in third place with a 731 rating, followed by AT&T Mobility, which scored 729 for last place among nationwide operators.
Interestingly, beyond T-Mobile, the other nationwide operators changed positions. In the previous survey, AT&T ranked second; Verizon ranked third and Sprint was last. All carriers dropped a few points in customer service scores from the previous period. In fact, Sprint Nextel’s score during the previous period was 743 — which was last place in the sixd-months ago study but second place in the most recent study.
The semiannual study ranks carriers on calls with customer service representatives and/or automated response systems; visits to retails stores and on the web. Customers who spoke with a CSR without going through an automated response system (ARS) scored customer care at 774, while people who used ARS scored customer service at 704 and those who had web-based contact scored the lowest customer satisfaction at 684. People who used a retail score gave customer service a score of 755, while the industry average was 739.
“As more companies encourage customers to contact them on the Web to save operating costs, they run the risk of increased customer churn if the number of contacts needed to resolve a complaint or issue rises,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “Switching intent is four times as high among those who rate their wireless carrier below average in customer care, so the challenge for wireless carriers is to offer an easy and efficient customer care transaction experience.”
The average person spends more than 6.24 minutes on hold when trying to call their carrier, up almost a full minute from six months ago.
“While customers tend to be more satisfied when they can reach a service representative quickly, heavy reliance on live representatives is much more costly for wireless carriers,” said Parsons. “If wireless carriers can drive improvements in satisfaction with non-human interaction channels, overall customer care performance scores will improve dramatically by making the process more intuitive and efficient, and likely so in a much more cost-effective manner.”
The study, conducted between July and December, was based on responses from 9,755 people who had contacted their carrier’s customer care department during the last six months.