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 posted an average index score of 103 in topping last year’s list. The carrier also received the highest ranking last year in J.D. Power and Associates studies measuring wireless call quality performance and retail satisfaction, as well as ties or outright high scores in six regional rankings of customer satisfaction.
Verizon Wireless posted the 2005 Customer Care Performance Study’s second-highest index score of 104. The carrier, which regularly posts top marks in various consumer surveys, maintained the same runner-up position it garnered on last year’s list though with an improvement over its previous index score of 98.
Nextel Communications Inc. rounded out the top three on this year’s list with an index score of 103, which was an improvement compared with the index score of 93 the carrier received in last year’s study that was good for a third-place tie with Alltel Corp. and the industry average for 2004. Alltel improved its index score this year to 100, which was the industry average for this year, but slipped behind Nextel in the overall rankings to fourth place.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which posted an index score of 95, and Sprint PCS, which garnered an index score of 93, filled in the final two positions in the 2005 study and were the only two operators that posted index scores below the industry average. Cingular posted a similar fifth-place finish last year-tied with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. which Cingular acquired last October-with an index score of 88, while Sprint PCS was the lowest ranked operator last year with an index score of 86.
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.
