Roy Morgan Research has revealed that customers of Virgin Mobile and VHA brand ‘3’ are more satisfied with the service that they are receiving from their mobile provider than customers of other telcos — although the nation’s biggest telco Telstra is catching up fast.
A study conducted by RMR collected and analysed data for the period from January to December 2010 on a sample of more than 14,000 users who had at least one mobile phone. Results for the second half of the year showed 84 per cent of Virgin Mobile customers, and 80 per cent of 3 users, were either “very” or “fairly” satisfied with the services they purchased.
The research reported Optus followed at more than 10 percent behind Virgin, with 73 per cent of its customers being satisfied with its services; a result which qualifies Optus as the only other competitor performing above the industry average of 71 per cent. Vodafone and Telstra followed at 70 and 65 per cent respectively.
RMR director of mobile, internet and technology Andrew Braun said that although Telstra looked far behind rival telcos, its position had actually improved in the second half of 2010. “The second half of 2010 has seen overall satisfaction with service providers gradually increase on the back of a resurgent Telstra, and to a lesser extent the growth in satisfaction with 3,” he said.
According to the research, 3 recorded the largest growth, increasing its customers satisfaction by 6 per cent since June 2010, when RMR rated it at 74 per cent. Optus maintained its momentum, improving slightly from 72 to 73 per cent. The industry average satisfaction level increased by two percentage points, reaching 71 per cent.
Troubled telco Vodafone – which had experienced coverage and privacy issues – recorded a loss of 4 percentage points, from 74 to 70 per cent, just below the industry average score. Telstra was the last one on the list, with its customers moving their satisfaction rating from 62 to 65 per cent.
Last February, at the release of its half-year financial results, Telstra made clear it had worked to improve customer service and to develop a new strategy to retain and grow its portfolio of customers. On that occasion Telstra chief executive David Thodey said the company was back on track to deliver better services. “Telstra’s initiatives to improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn and simplify the company are on track,” he said. “Customer satisfaction scores have improved over the half year.”
RMR Braun explained the index of customer satisfaction for the year ahead might be affected by natural disasters such as flooding – including the consequent poor network coverage – and the way providers reacted to those unpredictable situations. He added admissions by telcos of compromised services and inability to deliver were signs of improved transparency.
“Already in 2011 we have seen service providers proactively admitting service difficulties due to events such as flooding and poor coverage,” he said. “Could this improved transparency and continued focus on satisfaction further improve performance in the first half of 2011?”
Image credit: Michaela Kobyakov, royalty free
Three? Really. Their service is terrible for me. Virgin I can’t comment on having never used them.
Thank god that CBA story isn’t the featured article on the front page anymore…that photo of Michael Harte was doing my head in.
lol he doesn’t smile as much in person :)
Yeah but this one has the whole “god how long do I have to keep this stupid pose for” look about him
This could so be turned into a “Photoshop / Caption Me” competition… ;)
last caption contest Renai ran I don’t think anyone the prize…..
“anyone the prize’ wtf grammar fail! >_<
anyone got the prize
Virgin Mobile’s service is terrible. Their call center has been moved out of Australia so if you have any issues at all, you must make a painful and laboriously long phone call to a foreign call center, Their Internet service on their mobile network is shoddy at best, with handsets often requiring reboots for email to download….. and their plans take advantage of the young market they target with ridiculous call charges.
One last main and scary point – CHECK OUT HOW MUCH VIRGIN CHARGES FOR INTERNET – once you go over their base amount of included data, they charge 20c per KB! Work out how much this is – $20 per megabyte. WOW – 10 megabyte will cost you $200. If you go 100 megabyte over – thats $2000! Criminal really. How can they include 300 megabyte for $10, then the next 300 megabyte costs you $6000?
I would have to dissagree completely with this article. I was with Vodafone for 6 months, and it took half of that to get released from the contract. Their service is terrible. They say they’ll call you back and the don’t. I sent my phone in (to return it) in January, and they only just received it… They wanted to charge me $1000 for not returning it!!
I’ve since jumped ship to Telstra, and won’t be looking back. There is no comparison. I call Telstra, and within a minute I’m talking to someone. That’s service. That’s worth the extra money.
I’d question the wording of that survey. There is a significant difference between very satisfied and ‘fairly’ satisfied. To me, the latter is quite negative.
I’ve been with Virgin for 6 months and while their customer service is fine, their internet service is extremely inadeqate. If there was a better option (I can’t bring myself to sign a contract with Telstra) I’d take it.
I went to sign up with Vodaphone and the shop assistant told me as I had discontinued my phoneline to
lie, I was also told to fake a work reference, as I am retired this is fraud, probably caused by adaptations to an improperly designed website application form. Just goes to show you though, I woinder what AMaysim are like they said I could combine my data dongle and my phone.
Am I happy with Virgin (my current isp/carrier) my dongle prevents any USB storage from being connected whiulst on line, if I uninstall it does wierd things, and trying to email service is worse than turning led into gold, but it seems to work mostly, thats one thing I guess.
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