Mobile CSAT Challenges

What happens to customer satisfaction one of the lowest rated cell phone companies buys out one of the most limited cell phone companies whose sole benefit is the low cost option they give consumers? We’re about to find out. AT&T – a company that has become notorious for their low customer satisfaction scores – has bought out T-Mobile – a company known to have serious call connectivity issues that operate with a much lower cost than its competitors.

AT&T’s merger may stop due to monopoly laws, but it’s clear that if they do decide to merge, it could be a customer satisfaction nightmare. This is one of those moments that will show what affect customer satisfaction has over things like perceived competition, marketing, reach, etc. I have AT&T, and while I haven’t had any serious dropped call problems myself, I know how badly others are going to view this partnership.

Still, even if I was having as negative an experience as others with their service, I can’t say I would ever leave without a good reason. The other options don’t see much better, they’re certainly not much cheaper, and the hassle of switching phone services is just too much. I can imagine others are likely going to experience something similar.

It’s hard to see a mass exodus from a cell phone provider simply because they are likely to experience worse service issues. I can see a situation where T-Mobile customers leave before the merger in order to avoid the well-known AT&T issues, but once the merger takes place it seems unlikely that a massive number of people are going to leave. Still, when the popular opinion of AT&T and T-Mobile are as poor as they are, it does raise the question about whether or not: a) The customers are going to become even less satisfied once the companies merge. b) The customers are going to leave due to this lack of satisfaction.

Yet it’s also possible that none of the issues with customer satisfaction that are listed in the article even occur. They listed issues of confusion as one of the causes for a possible drop in satisfaction, but not all companies suffer from these issues. When Chase bank bought out Washington Mutual, all of the WaMu customer service numbers continued to work long after the merger occurred, and few of the options and perks changed during that time.

The merger may be a customer satisfaction nightmare, or it may be nothing. It may cause a serious withdrawal from the company, or it may do nothing. One thing’s for sure: It’s going to be interesting.