Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. topped a new prepaid wireless customer satisfaction survey from J.D. Power & Associates. The rankings covered mobile virtual network operators and traditional wireless operators.
The survey examined responses from about 4,000 current prepaid wireless customers on their experience in seven aspects of service: call quality, company image, cost of service, account management, initial activation, service plan options and customer service.
Virgin Mobile USA performed well across all of the categories and earned the highest score of 751 on J.D. Power’s 1,000-point scale. The survey concluded that Virgin Mobile USA did particularly well on initial account activation and customer service.
“Virgin Mobile has differentiated itself from the competition in areas related to the support functions by providing its customers with a positive service experience,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power. “Virgin Mobile appears to be providing its customers with important elements that impact the daily service experience.”
Verizon Wireless’ prepaid Inpulse service ranked second with a score of 736. The wireless operator did best in the call quality and company image segments.
T-Mobile USA Inc.’s prepaid offering ranked third, followed by Boost Mobile L.L.C. and TracFone Wireless Inc. The industry’s average score was 717; Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s GoPhone offering and Alltel Corp.’s prepaid offering ranked below the average.
According to J.D. Power, the study also found that “customers of MVNOs … report higher satisfaction levels in account management and cost of service dimensions. On the other hand, carriers who own and operate their own network … generate higher satisfaction ratings in components comprising the company image factor … (and) for having a larger local calling area and for providing timely voice and text mail notifications.”
The survey also concluded that prepaid users typically spend $37 on airtime per month, and use about 208 minutes per month. Two-thirds of prepaid phones are purchased from stores with minutes included, while almost 20 percent of sales occur via the Internet.
