This really does not surprise me. It is like the old Avis advertisement -“We Try Harder”
In Vocal Laboratories’ most recent quarterly SectorPulse report which measures the quality of customer care, Verizon Wireless edged out T-Mobile in Caller Satisfaction.
Verizon achieved an “A” ranking in Caller Satisfaction, and a “B” in Call Completion for the second time; while T-Mobile dropped their Caller Satisfaction grade to a “B” from the last report and achieved another “B” in Call Completion since the last report.
Other results included in this study: — Cingular received a “C” in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion, no change from the last report. — AT&T Wireless received a “D” in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion, dropping its “C” in both Caller Satisfaction and Caller Completion from the last report. — Sprint PCS achieved a “C” in Caller Satisfaction and a “D” in Call Completion, down from a “C” in Call Completion in the last report.
“Long hold times and the inability to get to a customer service representative quickly are still very common customer service complaints among the phone companies,” said Peter U. Leppik, CEO of VocaLabs.
VocaLabs asked study participants to provide details on their customer service experiences. Among many of the shared reports, the difficulty to speak with a live customer service agent was cited many times. A study participant shared her frustration and commented, “I waited for 10 minutes and 27 seconds before reaching a live person. This was after finding my way through the automated system. Also, the customer service representative made me wait a few times which felt lengthy. I’d suggest speeding up the wait times.”
When asked what specific suggestions the panelists would make to improve their service, one panelist commented, “Give you the option of a recorded person or a live person as a first option.” Another comment, “I talked to two people. The first one could have given me the information to save time instead of transferring me.”
“The speech recognition software they use does not recognize voices well so you have to keep repeating things. Then after that process was over I still had to start over with a person,” commented another panelist. “Automated systems are still causing high Caller Frustration levels,” said Leppik. “There are still only a few mobile phone carriers on the right path of doing things right with customer care and others that have significant room for improvement.”