Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

The ability to deliver excellent service is an important attribute to have as it can make the difference between keeping and losing a customer. As companies are competing for fewer consumer dollars, a focus on the customer experience is even more important.

Integra Telecom Inc. recently commissioned a customer survey, conducted by independent research firm Riley Research Associations, and found that the company’s reliability of service was its highest rated service attribute. 

According to the findings from this survey, there were statistically high levels of satisfaction by Integra’s customers throughout the company’s rapid growth. In addition, Integra’s Electric Lightwave and Eschelon Telecom customers who came to patronize the company through acquisitions over the past three years showed the greatest increases in customer service satisfaction.

“The results indicate that overall satisfaction among Integra Telecom’s customers has remained consistently high throughout the company’s rapid growth and integration of acquired customers into its local service model,” said Michael J. Riley, APR, PRC, president and research director of Riley Research Associates, in a Monday statement.

“Our findings show that as the newly acquired customers from ELI and Eschelon have been integrated into the Integra family, their satisfaction with their services has continued to grow.”

On a 10-point scale system where 10 is “Extremely Satisfied”, Integra scored an 8.9 for reliability and a 9.1 for billing accuracy. The company also received high marks for its speed in connecting customers with a live person, the range in service it offers, and for its local representatives that answer service calls instead of routing them through an automated system.

“Customer service is a core principal of Integra’s business model and we use Riley’s survey, as well as ongoing feedback from our customers, as key indicators of whether or not we are exceeding our customers’ expectations,” said Dudley Slater, CEO of Integra Telecom, in the Monday statement.

“Having expanded our customer base nearly fourfold in the past few years, I am pleased to see that we’ve successfully been able to uphold our promise of providing industry-leading customer service.”

Key service attributes of a telecom provider were examined and customers most often selected reliability as the most important factor. And, while price was ranked among the top eight purchase criteria for customers, speed of reaching a real person, billing accuracy, timely service call resolution and service reliability were ranked higher.

The results of this survey not only point to those things that Integra is doing right in customer service, it also can be used as a best-practice lesson for others who are seeking to improve upon customer service deliverables in a time where every customer interaction counts.