AT&T iPhone user defection looming?
And what about the customers who are already on other networks…?
CNET reports that a recent survey by the Morpace market research firm found that 34% of those who already OWN an iPhone ARE WAITING TO UPGRADE their phones until iPhone is available on another carrier. Some 47% would at least CONSIDER switching to Verizon for iPhone. Of the AT&T subscribers, 23% said that they are somewhat or very likely to switch to Verizon for an iPhone. If you like “vertical bar graphs,” you’ll like this article. 
I guess, as someone who switched our two remaining “lines” from AT&T to Verizon “early” (this March), for the coverage and COST SAVINGS, we would be included with the 51% of current Verizon customers who are likely to get an iPhone once it comes to Verizon’s network (though not necessarily “immediately” ). Verizon is rumored to be getting the iPhone in January 2011. This result is interesting given the availability of other smartphones (Motorola Droid [my wife has one of these; I still have my two “dumbphones,” waiting for an iPhone], Droid 2, and Droid X) on Verizon.
Although the Morpace (PDF) sample was relatively small (only about 100 current AT&T customers in the 1,000 respondents), Jay Heyboer, vice-president of technology and advanced analytics at Morpace said that the findings are statistically valid.
According to another survey by the Yankee Group, 77% of current iPhone owners say that they intend to buy another Apple phone. The Yankee Group also found that a THIRD of all smartphone owners of ALL TYPES who intend to buy a smartphone intend to buy an iPhone! According to a blog written by an analyst with Yankee Group, Carl Howe, Apple is the most popular choice for a future smartphone among ALL MOBILE PHONE OWNERS!
What about “customer satisfaction” (something that was my job to worry about in high tech) with the carrier networks? In May 2010, ChangeWave Research reported (PDF) that 49% of the customers of first-place Verizon were very satisfied with their service. Second-place Sprint Nextel had a 35% satisfaction rate, and T-Mobile and AT&T tied for last place with only a 23% satisfaction rate.
In the “dropped calls,” event, ChangeWave reported only 1.5% of calls dropped with Verizon, 2.4% for Sprint, 2.8% for T-Mobile, and 4.5% for last-place AT&T in the three months prior to the survey. This was Verizon’s BEST performance for dropped calls since September 2008, and AT&T’s WORST, for the same period.
In a JD Powers survey, Verizon RANKED LAST of the four in retail satisfaction or customer support. Vocal Laboratories (Vocalabs) found in a recent survey that Verizon placed LAST of the four in satisfaction after customer service calls!
As for “churn rate,” the rate at which customers leave one carrier for another, Verizon (1.27%) and AT&T (1.29%) are virtually “tied” for the lowest churn.
As CNET points out, what people SAY they are going to do and what they actually DO are sometimes very different.
It looks to me, after a career in customer relationship management (CRM), that greatly increased data traffic on Verizon’s network from an influx of iPhone users COULD conceivably present a problem for them in terms of retail satisfaction and customer service and support.
But we shall see….
-Bill at
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