T-Mobile USA’s and Verizon Wireless’ customer service departments scored closely in Vocal Laboratories’ quarterly SectorPulse report measuring customer care quality.
T-Mobile rated an A in caller satisfaction and B in call completion for the second time, while Verizon improved its caller satisfaction grade to A from the last report and received a B in call completion for the second time.
Cingular Wireless received Cs in both caller satisfaction and call completion, dropping in the call completion category. Cingular’s soon-to-be new property, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., also received Cs in both caller satisfaction and call completion, improving from a D in call satisfaction.
Sprint PCS improved to Cs in both categories from Ds in the last report.
“Caller frustration is still very common among the five mobile-phone companies,” said Peter U. Leppik, chief executive officer of VocaLabs. “Even though there is still room for improvement, both T-Mobile and Verizon are clearly leading the pack of mobile-phone carriers and doing many things right with their customer service.”
Common problem areas reported across companies included difficulty in connecting to an agent, long hold times, and automated systems, which were difficult to navigate. Report data was gathered between July and September 2004.
Nextel Communications Inc. was not included in the study.
