Verizon notches gold in retail satisfaction study

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 24th 2008 at 4:24PM

While Sprint recently saw its CSR response times skyrocket, Verizon's doing a happy dance of its own after pulling down a gold medal from a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey. Curiously enough, it's not one we see as being particularly awesome -- call us crazy, but we tend to care about amazing coverage more than how spiffy a sales associate looks -- but the carrier is apparently numero uno in retail satisfaction. What's that mean, you ask? It takes into account four factors: sales staff, store display, store facility and price / promotion. Evidently, Verizon has the whole B&M experience thing locked down, and these days, we reckon you take every chance you get to celebrate. Party on, in that case.

[Via RCRWireless, image courtesy of DayLife]

Filed under: Verizon Wireless, Studies, Misc

Tags: customer service, CustomerService, data, research, retail, survey, verizon

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

vaxick @ Oct 24th 2008 4:30PM

Who do they poll for these things? Almost every time I'm in a Verizon store I see somebody pissed off because they have to wait so long to speak to somebody. Crap, the last time I went to a Verizon store to get a phone I walked out and it was activated to a phone number that was not mine. I went back in and had to wait an hour to get them to fix it.

Highest Ranked

GBallew @ Oct 24th 2008 4:55PM

So lemme get this straight...Sprint scores high on how fast they answer their phones and you guys praise the hell outta them. It's not even whether or not they fix the issue, but how fast they answer the phones. Verizon scores high on some visual stuff, but you blatenly point out that you don't care...

...I just don't understand what actually matters to you guys. neither of these polls actually have anything to do with what the customers actually need and yet you give Sprint more cred than VZW on pointless statistics. I smell a biased opinion coming on here.

Highest Ranked

Rollins @ Oct 24th 2008 9:47PM

I think part of it is that this sort of thing is expected from Verizon. Verizon has extremely good coverage, pretty decent support, and all-around doesn't have many problems (aside from an inability to keep a current smartphone lineup, something that they appear to be working on).

Sprint, on the other hand, was absolutely bombing in the CS department (and honestly everywhere else) before and is now doing a lot better.

Neutral

Jose @ Oct 24th 2008 5:18PM

Who cares about stores? I'm happy with T-Mobile and have never been to one of their stores. No need for them.

Neutral

Ben @ Oct 24th 2008 8:48PM

I have had AT&T since before it was Cingular, I have outstanding coverage, great 3G over the greater Los Angeles and Orange County area and have NEVER been in an AT&T or Cingular store either,

Neutral

ljb @ Oct 24th 2008 11:20PM

Verizon's customer service sucks!. They are downright rude. I have never had a good experience in a verizon store but they have the network and I have a contract

Highest Ranked

jmk443 @ Oct 25th 2008 12:21AM

ljb, it's probably because you are an idiot. VZW reps hate dealing with idiots.

Neutral

ljb @ Oct 25th 2008 2:41PM

well jmk443, when I walk into the store and start the conversation with "HI, how are you today?" and the rep comes back with "TERRIBLE! Bet you didn't expect to hear that did you?" then looks at me like they want to fight I'd say that's pretty bad customer service. Just trying to be nice and get a question answered isn't idiotic in my book.

Neutral

Goldengriff @ Oct 25th 2008 3:09AM

If memory serves me right Verizon won for best all around coverage. Lets face it they are on the ball.

Neutral

Eric @ Oct 25th 2008 8:59AM

Never had a good experience in a VZW store. Get your name on a list, wait for an hour or so, stare at the attractive reps chatting away while the less so do all the work.

Luckily, I have a VZW dealer nearby for when I need help.

Neutral

Mark @ Oct 25th 2008 10:01AM

Thank you Eric, 1 person that thinks dealers are generally a better place.

Granted I am biased (just a bit haha) as I own 2 premium retailer stores. But that gives me the ability to control how people are treated, generally how long they are there waiting if at all. MOST (not all) dealers will give you a better in store experience than a corporate store, they want to help you because they want you to come back.

Neutral

Jonathan @ Oct 26th 2008 8:34PM

Apparently J.D. Power has never had to get a phone serviced through a verizon store. Long waits, rude employees, and a very common practice of waiting an hour to speak to a rep, handing them my phone and getting a sheet of paper saying come back in an hour, and then waiting another hour to speak to another rep. This is a common practice at my local Verizon store, which more commonly than not will result in them handing me the same phone I turned in that has been untouched. I have actually seen them take my phone and set it in a drawer, then take it back out 2 hours later and say "nothing we can do." I also love trying to get a new phone activated, my brother bought a new phone off of ebay and tried to get it activated in the store and the conversation was rediculous.
Brother: "Hey I need to activate this phone."
Rep: "Ok! Sure! (General account questions)....Wait...Did you buy this in the store or from the Verizon website?"
Brother: "No, ebay"
Rep: "Oh, well there is a $50 fee to activate it, and also you are going to have to upgrade your plan to the data plan, thats a 2 year add-on plan."
Brother: "Isnt there a way to upgrade over the phone?"
Rep: "Yea, you can find the number online, have a good day"

I think that is ridiculous, uninformed customers who go in the store to activate a phone can easily get screwed over and tricked into paying hundreds of extra dollars by a manipulative sales clerk.

Neutral

Jeremy @ Oct 27th 2008 10:30AM

your depiction of how your brother's situation was handled is grossly exaggerated.

VZW charges a $20 processing fee in store for activating equipment. It is waived in a lot of instances based on a customer's account status.

VZW does not charge a fee to activate equipment on their website.

VZW does not require contractual agreements unless they sell a phone to you at a loss. Plan changes do not carry contractual obligations.

VZW does not require data plans on devices with the exception of Blackberry devices.

Neutral

VZ Guy @ Oct 27th 2008 12:57AM

Wow.......I am a store manager out in Boston and these stories are things I hate to see. The next time you have a bad experience at one of our stores, take 2 minutes to record a survey (either by automated phone call or online). I promise you that these surveys are not only reviewed by store managers and the rep that helped you but regional directors on a daily basis. These surveys are a daily focus and I guarentee a negative survey will result in a phone call from someone like myself to resolve any problems you have.