The MVNO Tesco Mobile has been ranked highest for UK customer satisfaction by both contract and prepaid customers in a new survey by J.D Power and Associates. The huge supermarket firm beat all other UK service providers, which saw Vodafone pushed down to bottom in the rankings.
Tesco Mobile has achieved this top place for a second consecutive year by achieving a score of 742 out of a possible 1,000. The firm registered highly for call quality/coverage, cost of service, promotions and handsets. O2, which hosts the Tesco Mobile service, finished second with a score of 720.
UK mobile phone customers also registered overall higher satisfaction compared to when the survey was conducted a year ago. J.D. Power claims that the increased uptake of smartphones has been a key influence on the rise in approval, with the enhanced features and utility of advanced phones boosting the customer perceptions of the value they receive.
Commenting on the findings, J.D. Power's director of service industries, Stuart Crawford-Browne, said in a statement: "The industry has made notable gains in strengthening network infrastructure and has managed to do so without raising service costs, which is undoubtedly good news for customers."
"However, as adoption of data-intensive smartphones increases, it will be interesting to see how well providers keep up with pressure on networks, and whether price increases and caps on data usage will ensue," Crawford continued. "These could curtail the positive momentum on overall satisfaction that has developed during the past couple of years."
The research firm also found that the number of UK customers contacting customer service had declined markedly-- from 22 per cent in 2010 to 14 per cent in 2011--and that customers were increasingly accessing their online accounts to monitor their charges--from 68 per cent in 2010 up to 78 per cent in 2011.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Mobile News article
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