J.D. Power: Business Voice Customers Like a Single Point of Customer Care

Assigning business telephone customers a single point of contact for account services may result in a lift in overall satisfaction with landline voice telephone service providers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Major Provider Business Telecommunications Study – Voice Services.

The study measures customer satisfaction with providers of landline voice telephone service for businesses. Providers are ranked in three segments: home-based businesses (companies based in a residential location with one to five employees); small/midsize businesses (companies with two to 499 employees); and large enterprise businesses (companies with 500 or more employees).

Satisfaction among business customers who have a dedicated single point of contact is higher than among customers without a single point of contact. The disparity is particularly notable among small/midsize business customers and large enterprise business customers.

The study finds that business customers with a single point of contact have higher rates of problem resolution than customers who are not provided with a dedicated contact. In all three segments, problem resolution rates average approximately 90 percent among customers with a single point of contact. For customers without a dedicated contact, problem resolution rates average between 74 percent and 83 percent.

In addition, assigning a dedicated contact to a business account may also reduce the likelihood of customers to switch providers.

Optimum Business ranks highest in the small/midsize business segment with a score of 678 on a 1,000-point scale and performs particularly well in four factors: billing; cost of service; sales representatives and account executives; and customer service. AT&T follows Optimum Business in the segment rankings with a score of 654, while Qwest ranks third with 647.

In the home-based business segment, Verizon ranks highest with a score of 645 and performs particularly well in cost of service; offerings and promotions; and performance and reliability. Time Warner Cable (644) and AT&T (635) follow in the segment rankings.

AT&T ranks highest in the large enterprise business segment with a score of 687 and performs particularly well in four factors: performance and reliability; sales representatives/account executives; billing; and cost of service.

The 2010 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Study – Voice Services is based on responses from 4,458 business customers with telecommunications voice services at home-based, small/midsize and large enterprise businesses in the United States and includes evaluation of their data service provider. The study was fielded in September and November 2009 and January and March 2010.