Which Phone Operators Websites are the Best ?

Published on: 17th July 2006

The Customer Respect Group has published a report into the effectiveness of the websites of mobile phone operators. The report says that five websites did well enough overall to receive the "Excellent" Customer Respect rating, including Verizon Wireless, CenturyTel, O2 (UK), T-Mobil and Sprint.

The CRI is composed of six sub-indices that factor into three meta-concepts identified by customers as their critical concerns when using websites:

• Site Usability - How usable is the site to a wide range of users? This includes Simplicity (ease of use) and Attitude (accessibility).
• Communication - How willing is the company to engage in a one-on-one communication to answer specific questions? This includes Responsiveness (quality of email replies - both speed and helpfulness -- response tone and other communication methods).
• Trust - Can this site be trusted with your personal data? This includes Transparency (clarity and comprehensiveness of privacy policies), Principles (respect for data privacy, cookie explanations) and Privacy (respect for data privacy, clarity and comprehensiveness of privacy policies).

The report analyzed 55 companies from Telecommunications, Wireless, Cable and, for the first time, MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). Customer 'churn' is considered one of the most pressing issues for the telecommunications industry and 25% of customers are considered a high churn risk - those who may be ready to begin purchasing from a competitor at any time.

The website is one of the factors affecting churn, especially in the 18-34 age demographic grouping.

The industry scored an average of 5.9 overall, above average for a range of industries, and marginally better than the last report six months ago. The traditional telecommunications and wireless companies scored consistently higher than cable firms and MVNOs.

The key area of progress for the industry was in the area of Communications. While there is room for improvement, there was an almost 30% improvement in the score since the last report, albeit from a low score. The industry scored 5.9 for Communications in this report, which exceeds the 4.9 average rating attained by a range of industries.

In the area of Communications, 13% of email questions are still ignored completely and 41% were responded to in more than one day. The quality for responses received improved since the last report, especially in the Wireless sector. The MVNO sector was the worst performing in Communications, scoring just 5.0 out of 10, with that sector ignoring 25% of all email questions. Less than half of those responses were received within one day. Wireless companies in comparison responded to almost every email, with two-thirds of them responding within one day.

The best performers in Communications included Verizon Wireless, CenturyTel, T-Mobile and Sprint.

The improvement in site usability for the majority of users recorded in the last two reports continued. As an industry, Telecommunications performs above the average for a range of industries. Site inclusion support, however, declined from the last report. Site Inclusion looks at support for users without broadband access, non-standard displays, older machines, users with visual impairments, mobility issues and other disabilities. The combined web audience covered by inclusion factors is growing and legislation and legal safeguards protect many. Wireless companies led the way in Usability with MVNOs back of the pack. As an example, while 78% of wireless companies provide good self-help web functionality, just seven percent of MVNOs supply the same.

In the area of Trust, Wireless companies scored more poorly than traditional telecommunications companies, which led the industry. Overall 22% of companies still market personal information outside their companies without explicit permission of the customer. This rises to 33% for wireless companies. The industry is also most likely to re-use personal information supplied, with 73% using information for ongoing marketing for additional products. While opt-in is slowly becoming more accepted in other industries, fewer than half of the telecommunications companies provide for this customer control of their data. Bucking the poor results in Trust for wireless providers, Verizon Wireless led the industry with CenturyTel, Bell Canada and MVNO provider TracFone performing well.

The top-scoring US telecommunications companies in this report were the following:

According to Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group, "Telecommunications companies have paid attention to site usability. It is also refreshing to see online communications and email taken seriously as vital to customer acquisition and retention. Conversely, too many companies have taken liberties with the increased amounts of information that can be, and is, collected. Customers have many new telecom choices and have shown that information protection is important to them, so industry members should heed their privacy concerns."

 

Tags: [skype]  [privacy]  [virgin mobile]  [mvno]  [bell canada]  [tracfone]  [churn] 

Previous Story

Next Story