The acquisition of T-Mobile will bring AT&T more loyal customers, according to Vocal Laboratories’ study on phone-based customer service quality.
The study was conducted through telephone interviews immediately following a customer service call. 73 percent of T-Mobile customers interviewed in Q1 2011 would subscribe again to T-Mobile's service, as compared to only 62 percent of AT&T customers.
For customers of the four major wireless carriers – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon – call resolution remains the largest driver of customer dissatisfaction and disloyalty, according to the study.
According to the Vocal Laboratories study, one in three customers industry-wide said their customer service issues were not fully resolved. If operators are more effective at solving customers' problems, mobile phone companies can improve loyalty by 12-13 percentage points.
Vocal Laboratories has underwritten this independent research on an ongoing basis to benchmark industry trends in phone-based customer service.
Results of the survey are based on 5,245 telephone interviews conducted between October 2009 and March 2011.
The National Customer Service Survey (NCSS) compares customer service quality for different companies in the same industry, using survey data and call statistics from the companies' customers.
In December 2010, Consumer Reports ranked AT&T the worst wireless network provider in the nation based on a survey conducted on AT&T customers. Respondents were asked to rate AT&T's quality of wireless data, phone calls, text messages and customer service. AT&T ranked last in all categories, except for text messaging, which ranked the carrier second-worst.