As well as bringing our readers news about new and upcoming smartphones and tablets we also like to keep you informed about carriers. Today we have news that giant U.S. carrier AT&T is seeing rising levels of customer service and satisfaction, good news for AT&T customers although you may have a different story to tell!
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Verizon is still ahead of AT&T for customer satisfaction although the Big Red’s popularity has dipped. The top spot though is taken by Sprint, which now has the highest level of satisfied customers in the U.S. carrier market. The ACSI report to ascertain customer satisfaction involved 70,000 customers, over 225 companies and 47 industries and so AT&T, which has previously had a dubious reputation regarding customer service, will be pleased with the improvements made.
In the latest report AT&T scored a grade of 69/100, 5% up on 2011 and now on equal footing with T-Mobile USA, which went down by 1%. AT&T gained 700,000 new subscribers in Q4 last year, it’s largest gain in five quarters and ACSI founder Claes Fornell points out, “AT&T is within striking distance of the industry lead for the first time since 2008, when it had an exclusive deal with iPhone,” according to a Cnet report.
Verizon is now only just ahead of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, scoring 70/100, a drop of 3% on last year. Previously Verizon Wireless had a good reputation for customer service but this is now the third year in a row that its grade has gone down. It’s thought that this is because of the strain on the Verizon network from increased data usage as well as new upgrade fees. Sprint is now at the top of the carrier customer satisfaction tree though with a grade of 71/100, although that is a fall of 1% from last year. It’s a big improvement though on its grade of 56/100 back in 2008.
Looking at the same report, but focusing on cell phones it was Apple’s iPhone that took top spot scoring 83/100. There were no other scores of over 80 from any other phone manufacturer leading the ACSI to describe iPhone satisfaction as a “game changer.” The next highest scores were for HTC, Nokia and LG, all scoring 75/100 while Samsung’s grade was 71/100 and RIM floundered on 69/100 in last position.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on the latest customer satisfaction report findings. Are you an AT&T customer and if so have you noticed customer service has improved? Maybe your own experience with the carrier doesn’t reflect the report results? Let us know by sending us your comments.