According to a survey released by The American Customer Satisfaction Index, Sprint Nextel Corp. now has one of the highest customer service scores in the industry. While Sprint excelled, two of the largest American carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile USA, were given lower marks that could drop even further pending the merger. The $39 billion deal could be finalized as early as next year, pending antitrust proceedings currently taking place in American courts.
According to Claes Fornell, a professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan and the leader of the survey, it was common to find that customer satisfaction drops after a merger.
Fornell explains mobile mergers often bring difficulties in combined billing, customer support, and other functions that might confuse or infuriate consumers. Sprint, for example, had the worst customer service score in the industry for years after its merger with Nextel in 2005, finally turning its luck around this quarter.
Sprint and Verizon both scored a 72 for customer service satisfaction according to the ACSI survey, which polled around 8,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2011. Although a 72 isn’t exactly a top mark, it does represent an improvement for Sprint who scored a 56 only three years ago.
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has been keen on improving customer service within Sprint, whose subsidiaries include Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, two companies that offer mobile service without the two year subscription.
Currently, AT&T has a 66 while T-Mobile is at a solid 70. The question is whether the companies can maintain, improve, or if they are fated to drop below the 66 mark if the acquisition deal indeed goes through.
