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June 9, 2010

According to recent statistics revealed by J.D. Power & Associates and made public two weeks ago, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA continue to lead the pack in overall customer satisfaction.

The survey was conducted mostly among small businesses. While Verizon Wireless was the favored carrier among small- and medium-sized business, unsurprisingly, T-Mobile took top honors among home-based businesses.

The survey found that small- and mid-sized business users are more satisfied with their wireless service than home-based businesses, due to cost concerns for home-based businesses.

The research firm added that small and midsize businesses are more satisfied because they are getting more service promotions and discounts.

The survey is in its sixth year and it polled 3,247 businesses on a variety of factors: network performance, sales representatives, billing, cost of service, customer service and promotions. Home-based businesses are defined as having between one and five employees, while small- and mid-sized businesses are defined as having between two and 499 employees.

In the home-based business category, T-Mobile ranked highest with a score of 712 out of a possible 1,000, followed by Verizon Wireless, which scored 690 points.

Alltel had an average score of 667, Sprint Nextel, which scored 656 and AT&T Mobility, which scored 627 points.

In the small business category, Verizon Wireless took top honors, with a score of 707, followed by T-Mobile, which scored 698.

Interestingly, Sprint Nextel (661); Alltel and AT&T Mobility (658 for both) all fell below the industry average of 682.

Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power says "overall, both T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have differentiated themselves from the competition by exceeding customer expectations in key service areas and by providing strong network performance and reliability."

"Particularly among small- and mid-sized businesses, customer service and network-related issues such as call quality and performance reliability are important elements that impact the daily decision-making process. Both T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless appear to be meeting these needs in an effective manner," added Parsons.

"Sprint Nextel and AT&T received poorer scores in network reliability and customer care, factors that are related to each other," Parsons said. "If a customer has a poor network experience, they call customer care to try to resolve the issue."

The overall cost of wireless services for small businesses is dropping, J.D. Power concluded. Home-office customers average about $140 per month, a drop of more than $30 per month compared with last year.

Small businesses saw their wireless service costs decline $190 year over year, to $930 per month.

“Clearly, the revenue potential among larger businesses dictates that wireless service providers are more aggressive in offering pricing discounts through sales promotions, such as volume-tiered pricing based on the number of employees participating," said Parsons.

"This could also include offering bundled products and services as a way to promote cost savings, given that from both revenue and customer loyalty perspectives, providers offering multiple services to meet client communication needs can almost immediately experience a positive financial impact," said Parsons.

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Source: J.D. Power & Associates.