Results of the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show a continued, but measured, growth rate in customer satisfaction with the quality of goods and services in industries including telecommunications and cable and satellite TV.
ASCI is an annual study published by the University of Michigan.
The telecommunications sector as measured by the ACSI is comprised of four industries: fixed-line service, wireless service, cable and satellite TV, and cell phones. The report finds customer satisfaction with cable and satellite TV providers remains low while wireless providers get high scores.
Among fixed-line telephone providers, Qwest Communications International Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. saw slight increases in customer satisfaction, reaching 72 on ACSI’s 100-point scale; meanwhile, AT&T Inc. (70), Comcast Corp. (67) and Cox Communications (70) all dropped a few points in their scores.
However, the ACSI report shows a second year of improvement in the wireless industry; a 3 percent increase equals a record-high score of 68. Helping to boost the industry’s score, AT&T Wireless, formerly Cingular Wireless, improved by 8 percent to reach 68 points, while Verizon Wireless (71) and T-Mobile USA Inc. (70) showed gains of 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Satisfaction with Sprint Nextel Corp., on the other hand, fell 3 percent to 61 points – seven points behind the nearest competitor.
The perennially low-scoring cable and satellite TV industry dropped 2 percent to 62, the lowest level of customer satisfaction among all industries covered by ACSI. All providers saw declines in customer satisfaction, including Comcast (down 7 percent to 56), DIRECTV (down 6 percent to 67) and Time Warner Cable (down 5 percent to 58).
In cell phones, Motorola Inc. and Nokia both advanced to 72, but Samsung fell three points to 70.
The ACSI report consistently has predicted future consumer spending and is an indicator of financial performance at both the company and industry levels, according to researchers. The study measures customers’ satisfaction with more than 200 companies across 43 different industries. The methodology measures satisfaction on a 100-point scale.
“In addition to the large number of decliners, the rate of improvement in satisfaction has slowed,” said Claes Fornell, director of the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center, which compiles and analyzes the ACSI data. “Companies don’t have much pricing power unless there is shrinking supply or higher customer satisfaction. There are no signs of the former in most industries, so the latter becomes more critical. Companies may begin to see narrowing profit margins unless there is further improvement in customer satisfaction.”
