J.D. Power Reports: Managing Expectations for Service Restoration Becomes Critical as Outage-Related Issues Take a Toll on Performance and Reliability Satisfaction with Residential Telephone Service

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Sept. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Service outages due to severe weather or technical blackouts have a notably negative impact on satisfaction with telephone service performance and reliability among residential customers, according to the J.D. Power 2013 U.S. Residential Telephone Service Provider Satisfaction Study^SM released today.

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KEY FINDINGS

• Overall customer satisfaction among telephone service customers is 710 on a 1,000-point scale.
• Satisfaction is 727 among customers who do not experience a service outage—85 points higher than among those who do experience at least one service outage (642).
• Nearly one-fourth (21%) of customers indicate experiencing a service outage during the past year.
• Performance and reliability is the most critical factor in driving overall satisfaction and meeting customer expectations.
• The incidence of customers who indicate they plan to drop their current telephone service during the next 12 months increases by 46 percent among those who have experienced a service outage, compared with those who have not experienced an outage (15% vs. 8%, respectively).
• The average monthly bill for telephone service is $45.

"Given that performance and reliability is the most influential factor contributing to overall satisfaction, outages have an adverse negative impact on customer loyalty that cannot be ignored," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications at J.D. Power. "Reducing the number of outages may go a long way in retaining customers and growing the number of services purchased in the future."

The 2013 U.S. Residential Telephone Service Provider Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 19,432 customers nationwide who receive their local and long distance telephone service from one provider. The study was fielded in four waves: November 2012, January 2013, April 2013 and July 2013. Now in its 18th year, the study measures customer satisfaction with telephone service based on five factors: performance and reliability; cost of service; billing; communication; and customer service.

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SOURCE J.D. Power and Associates