A new J.D. Power and Associates study has found that mobile customers with shared plans receive better customer care service than those with traditional plans, the company announced on February 7.
The semiannual study examined customer service from multiple mobile service companies. The three forms of customer service studied were store walk-ins, telephone and online. Satisfaction, problem resolution and hold times were all analyzed.
On a 1,000-point scale, customer service satisfaction was 778 with mobile shared data plan customers, while traditional data plan customers had 750. Customer service had the largest gaps with in-store service. Service representatives knew less about traditional mobile plans and took longer to solve issues.
These discrepancies led to the higher customer service ratings for shared plans.
The higher ratings of shared plan customers are due to the specific nature of the customers. “…Not only are customers with shared data plans more loyal than those without…but they also have a more positive perception of their carrier, in addition to spending approximately $30 more per household overall,” explained Kirk Parsons (News - Alert), senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.
Shared plan customers are more likely to contact their carriers for customer service, the study also found, but they spend on average one extra minute on hold while waiting to talk to a service representative.
The service also ranked service providers on the same 1,000-point scale. Contract-based providers scored an average of 755, while non-contract providers scored 698. Verizon (News 
- Alert) scored the highest for contract carriers with a score of 766; MetroPCS scored the highest for non-contract carriers with 733.
This study, done for the 11th time, took the responses of 7,332 contract and 3,131 non-contract customers. All customers placed a customer service inquiry within the past six months.
Edited by
Braden Becker
