Virgin Mobile Tops Prepaid Survey from JD Power

[Fire14]

J.D. Power: Virgin Mobile USA tops in prepaid survey

Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. topped a new prepaid wireless customer satisfaction survey from J.D. Power & Associates. The rankings covered mobile virtual network operators and traditional wireless operators.
The survey examined responses from about 4,000 current prepaid wireless customers on their experience in seven aspects of service: call quality, company image, cost of service, account management, initial activation, service plan options and customer service.

Virgin Mobile USA performed well across all of the categories and earned the highest score of 751 on J.D. Power’s 1,000-point scale. The survey concluded that Virgin Mobile USA did particularly well on initial account activation and customer service.

“Virgin Mobile has differentiated itself from the competition in areas related to the support functions by providing its customers with a positive service experience,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power. “Virgin Mobile appears to be providing its customers with important elements that impact the daily service experience.”

Verizon Wireless’ prepaid Inpulse service ranked second with a score of 736. The wireless operator did best in the call quality and company image segments.

T-Mobile USA Inc.’s prepaid offering ranked third, followed by Boost Mobile L.L.C. and TracFone Wireless Inc. The industry’s average score was 717; Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s GoPhone offering and Alltel Corp.’s prepaid offering ranked below the average.

According to J.D. Power, the study also found that “customers of MVNOs … report higher satisfaction levels in account management and cost of service dimensions. On the other hand, carriers who own and operate their own network … generate higher satisfaction ratings in components comprising the company image factor … (and) for having a larger local calling area and for providing timely voice and text mail notifications.”

The survey also concluded that prepaid users typically spend $37 on airtime per month, and use about 208 minutes per month. Two-thirds of prepaid phones are purchased from stores with minutes included, while almost 20 percent of sales occur via the Internet.

http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=27152

[strunke]

Originally Posted by Fire14

J.D. Power: Virgin Mobile USA tops in prepaid survey

Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. topped a new prepaid wireless customer satisfaction survey from J.D. Power & Associates. The rankings covered mobile virtual network operators and traditional wireless operators.
The survey examined responses from about 4,000 current prepaid wireless customers on their experience in seven aspects of service: call quality, company image, cost of service, account management, initial activation, service plan options and customer service.

Virgin Mobile USA performed well across all of the categories and earned the highest score of 751 on J.D. Power’s 1,000-point scale. The survey concluded that Virgin Mobile USA did particularly well on initial account activation and customer service.

“Virgin Mobile has differentiated itself from the competition in areas related to the support functions by providing its customers with a positive service experience,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power. “Virgin Mobile appears to be providing its customers with important elements that impact the daily service experience.”

Verizon Wireless’ prepaid Inpulse service ranked second with a score of 736. The wireless operator did best in the call quality and company image segments.

T-Mobile USA Inc.’s prepaid offering ranked third, followed by Boost Mobile L.L.C. and TracFone Wireless Inc. The industry’s average score was 717; Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s GoPhone offering and Alltel Corp.’s prepaid offering ranked below the average.

According to J.D. Power, the study also found that “customers of MVNOs … report higher satisfaction levels in account management and cost of service dimensions. On the other hand, carriers who own and operate their own network … generate higher satisfaction ratings in components comprising the company image factor … (and) for having a larger local calling area and for providing timely voice and text mail notifications.”

The survey also concluded that prepaid users typically spend $37 on airtime per month, and use about 208 minutes per month. Two-thirds of prepaid phones are purchased from stores with minutes included, while almost 20 percent of sales occur via the Internet.

http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=27152

Strange....I don't agree with this at all. I am baffled how people would put tracfone above any of those mentioned.

[Fire14]

Here is another article on the survey:

Virgin Mobile Tops Prepaid Satisfaction Study

Virgin Mobile has ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction among current USA wireless prepaid customers, according to a J.D. Power survey. The inaugural study measures customers' satisfaction with their current prepaid wireless service across seven key dimensions (in order of importance): call quality (24%); company image (19%); cost of service (17%); account management (15%); initial activation (11%); service plan options (8%); and customer service (6%).

Virgin Mobile ranks highest in prepaid wireless satisfaction and performs well across all factors, particularly in account management issues such as initial account activation and customer service. Verizon Wireless follows Virgin Mobile in the rankings and performs particularly well in the call quality and company image factors. Other prepaid carriers that score at or above the industry average are T-Mobile, Boost Mobile and TracFone.

"Virgin Mobile has differentiated itself from the competition in areas related to the support functions by providing its customers with a positive service experience," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power and Associates. "From initial account set up and activation, to account management that tracks and updates available minutes, Virgin Mobile appears to be providing its customers with important elements that impact the daily service experience."

The study finds that wireless satisfaction varies depending on the type of customer who subscribes to service from either a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) or to carriers that own and operate their own network. Customers of MVNOs -- which consist of providers that lease airtime and resell wireless services, for example Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile and TracFone -- report higher satisfaction levels in account management and cost of service dimensions. On the other hand, carriers who own and operate their own network (ALLTEL, Cingular, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) generate higher satisfaction ratings in components comprising the company image factor, such as reputation, image as a technical innovator and efficiently solving call quality issues. Customers also report higher satisfaction levels with traditional network operators for having a larger local calling area and for providing timely voice and text mail notifications.

"As a group, MVNOs attract a slightly different customer base due to their targeted products and services, such as unlimited text messaging options and cellular e-mailing capabilities, which commonly attract teens and young adults," said Parsons. "With this in mind, MVNOs have a competitive advantage in specific cost of service components, such as the price to refill minutes and to make local calls. They also have an advantage in management activity components, including the ease of recharging minutes and providing efficient methods of displaying used minutes. These are all critical areas that customers look for in a wireless provider."

From a network operator perspective, the majority of prepaid service plans are mainly product extensions from their post-paid offerings. Subsequently, areas such as brand image and network quality are traditionally perceived as competitive advantages among more established network wireless carriers. This has a positive impact on prepaid service offerings.

The study also finds the following key prepaid wireless usage patterns:

* Prepaid users typically spend on average $37 when purchasing airtime. Comparatively, the average monthly service cost for a typical post-paid customer is $65.

* Prepaid customers report using 208 minutes per month -- less than one-half as much as post-paid users, who average 501 minutes per month.

* Two-thirds (66%) of prepaid phones are purchased prepackaged with minutes off store shelves, while 19 percent of customers report purchasing a prepackaged phone from the Internet. The remaining 15 percent purchased an activation minutes card separately from their cell phone purchase (applies to selected cell phones).

* The majority (46%)of prepaid customers use a card provided by their local retailer to purchase additional airtime minutes, while more than one-third (34%) use the provider's Web site to do so. Ten percent of prepaid customers use their handsets to purchase additional minutes.

The 2006 Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 4,012 wireless customers who currently subscribe to prepaid service plans. Findings are based on the past two reporting waves, which were conducted in January 2006 and March 2006.


www.cellular-news.com/story/18975.php

[Quint101]

VM's CS has been great in my experiences. I also have prepaid accounts with TMobile and Alltel and the CS at both companies have been great also. In the case of Alltel, the good CS at 611 made up for the lack of information given to me at the store. VZW's prepaid CS were ok but nothing spectactular. The worst prepaid CS I had came from Cingular Blue GoPhone-- heavily accented condescending reps who knew that the customer was wrong I had a billing issue with them; they refused to help me, so I removed the AutoPay from my account and canceled my service (They asked why... I told them I was leaving the country lol) and I moved on to VZW's Easypay ...