AT&T Tops Verizon In J.D. Power’s Customer Satisfaction Study
by Brent Dirks
August 1, 2013
What a strange day. After we reported that Samsung bettered Apple in a new phone survey, J.D. Power has just announced the results of its annual study of wireless carrier customer satisfaction.
And, no, Verizon doesn’t top the list like usual. Instead, AT&T ranks the highest among the major carriers. The carrier iPhone users love to hate is followed by Verizon in second place. Sprint comes in third while T-Mobile lags behind in fourth.
Here’s what J.D. Power had to say about AT&T’s win:
For the first-time, AT&T ranks highest in wireless customer care satisfaction among full-service carriers, with an overall score of 795. AT&T performs particularly well in the walk-in and online contact channels and ranks above the full-service average in four of the five service channels.And overall, customers seem to be more satisfied with their wireless carriers:
Overall satisfaction among full-service customers who most recently contacted their carrier with service questions or issues is 786 (on a 1,000-point scale). This is a 31-point increase from just 6 months ago and is now the highest level of satisfaction reached since the study moved to the 1,000-point scale in 2009. The same pattern holds true among non-contract customers, for whom overall satisfaction is at an all-time high since 2012 (732), with an increase of 34 points from 6 months ago. While satisfaction levels have risen in all three main full-service contact channels, the online channel has improved the most, with a 52-point increase. This improvement is due to the increasingly innovative online chat functions and technologies that carriers are rolling out to their customers to help facilitate the care process as customers become more comfortable with this contact alternative vs. more traditional channels, such as telephone and walk-in.I made the switch to Verizon when the iPhone 5 was introduced last year, so I don’t have any recent contact with AT&T. But the results are still pretty interesting. Back in March, Apple grabbed the top spot in the J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction study for the ninth straight time.
