Who’s ahead in CEM?

In February J.D. Power and Associates released the two-part U.S. Wireless Customer Care Performance Study, which delivered insight into the customer experience management (CEM) performance of the telecommunications industry. The first part of the study ranked Verizon the highest among full-service carriers, while the second proclaimed MetroPCS tops among no-contract carriers. Interesting findings include:

• 41 percent of full-service wireless customers who resolved an issue online used the chat function, up five percentage points from 2011;

• overall satisfaction is highest (755 points) when customers use the chat function to resolve issues;

• satisfaction is an average of 246 points higher among no-contract customers whose issues are resolved on first contact as opposed to multiple contacts (801 vs. 555, respectively);

• 68 percent of full-service customers with a smartphone use a mobile application to contact/monitor their carrier regarding service issues.

J.D. Power and Associates released a second study toward the end of the month that examined purchase experience. Sprint has this game down pat, it seems, leading in both the full-service and no-contract categories with its Boost Mobile brand. Key findings of the study include:

• satisfaction is higher when shopping on general-store websites (772) than on big-box (752) and carrier sites (736);

• satisfaction is higher among customers with a 4G phone than among those with a non-4G phone (774 vs. 753, respectively);

• satisfaction among 4G retail customers is 821 points when the technology is explained to them and 714 when no explanation is provided;

• on average, customers with a 4G phone spend $24 more per month than those with a non-4G phone.