Wireless Carriers Fail (Again) On Customer Experience

In Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CxPi), we ranked 114 companies across 12 industries. I recently published a snapshot of the wireless industry results. The carriers, as a group, ended up tied for 8th (with PC manufacturers) out of the 12 industries. Here are some highlights of the results:

• Wireless carriers got worse. In last year’s CxPi, wirless carriers ended up with a not so good 66% rating. But in this year’s CxPi, the wireless carriers dropped to 64% (a rating of “poor”).
• Alltel takes the top spot. With an “okay” rating of 72%, Alltel topped the list of wireless carriers in the 2008 CxPi. Alltel also came out on top of all three categories of the CxPi, with the largest lead in enjoyability. Verizon Wireless, TracFone, and AT&T all scored well in usefulness.
• Sprint holds on to the bottom spot. Sprint’s score of 45% put the firm at the bottom of the list of carriers, the same spot it held last year. The low score left the carrier well below its closest competitor and 108th out of all 114 companies in the 2008 CxPi. Making matters worse, Sprint also had the largest drop from last year.
• AT&T makes the only gains. With a small 1% increase between 2007 and 2008, AT&T was the only carrier that improved its CxPi score. Alltel remained at the same level as last year, but all of the other carriers’ scores declined.

The bottom line: Wireless carriers are heading in the wrong direction.