For the second consecutive year, T-Mobile USA Inc. showed that size isn’t everything when it comes to customer service as the carrier topped consumer research firm J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study. The study included 8,600 wireless users who contacted wireless customer care within the past year.
T-Mobile USA recorded an index score of 108 in the study, which noted the carrier performed “particularly well across all factors, especially hold-time duration and problem-resolution efficiency.” The study also found that T-Mobile USA customers reported average hold times of 2.27 minutes before speaking with service representatives, which was 34-percent less than the 3.44-minute industry average.
“While other carriers tout their larger subscriber numbers as a consumer benefit, T-Mobile focuses on the individual service experience for each and every customer,” T-Mobile USA said in a statement.
T-Mobile USA received the highest ranking last year in J.D. Power and Associates studies measuring wireless call quality performance and retail satisfaction, as well as a tie or outright high score in six regional rankings of customer satisfaction.
Verizon Wireless posted the 2005 Customer Care Performance Study’s second-highest index score of 104, followed by Nextel Communications Inc.’s index score of 103 and Alltel Corp.’s index score of 100. All three carriers scored at or above the industry average of 100.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which posted an index score of 95, and Sprint PCS, which garnered an index score of 93, rounded out the list and were the only two operators below the industry average in the study.
Overall, J.D. Power and Associates noted that customer service issues handled by live service representatives either over the phone or in person generated “significantly higher customer-care ratings than non-human, computer-generated interaction.”
The study also found that customers who spoke with service representatives over the phone averaged index scores of 109; those who spoke with representatives at the retail level averaged index scores of 102; customers who contacted their wireless carriers through automated response systems posted index scores of 85; and wireless customers who contacted their carriers using the Internet averaged index scores of 75.
“The study shows that one of the main factors contributing to this performance disparity is the quality of response given,” the study explained. “A service representative-either over the phone or in person-can answer customer questions and clarify answers given. This kind of flexibility is very limited in both ARS and Internet contact methods.”
J.D. Power and Associates also reported that more than half of wireless users contacted a wireless carrier’s customer service department for assistance within the past year. Of those customers contacting their wireless carriers, 71 percent did so via the telephone compared with 26 percent through carrier retail stores and 3 percent through e-mail or the Internet.
