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Telco Providers Outperform Cable in Customer Satisfaction Study
 TMCnet Contributing Editor
When it comes to customer satisfaction, cable companies are far behind the telecom companies in the telecom communications arena, according to a study from the CFI Group.
The study states that as the companies battle for the customers in the converged marketplace, telecom companies score handsomely over their counterparts in the cable industry by providing better customer service. This study could be crucial for both the sides as over 20% of the households surveyed which currently do not have a bundled communications plan are highly likely to do so in the next 12 months. While this presents an immense opportunity for growth for both cable and telecom companies, there is also the sensitive issue of customer satisfaction, where the telecom companies are scoring at the moment.
In the study conducted, 54% of customers preferred a telecom provider and 44% preferred a cable company to get the services. While the CFI group study sought customer opinions for video, broadband Internet access, and wireless communications, it also carried out studies for wireless phone, cable TV and satellite TV, DSL  and cable modem broadband Internet providers.
So is it the end of the road for cable companies? Not really! Phil Doriot, Program Director for CFI Group thinks that customers are not satisfied about neither of the groups. For them, it’s actually a choice between the lesser of the two evils. It’s just that cable companies are not accustomed to provide the kind of service which telecom giants can provide. So they can still be competitive if they wake up and start providing good services.
One of the reasons for the low performance of the cable companies in this area may be because of their partnership with wireless carriers that have the worst customer satisfaction score. According to the business wire report, this data was provided by Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). On the other hand, telecom companies have joined hands with satellite TV companies which a superior history of customer satisfaction.
Another area of study conducted was the awareness of customers about VoIP and IPTV services. Here VoIP awareness far exceeds IPTV ( News - Alert) awareness (72% to 35%). But this comes with a catch as customers showed more interest in switching video providers than phone providers. This is an important study for both telecom and cable service providers as VoIP and IPTV are two areas where players from both sides can compete in each other’s areas.
Of course, both the groups will be fighting over another section of the society; the people who don’t know about these services or those who are simply not interested. According to the CFI study, they represent more than 30% and winning them over can be a significant gain for either of the groups.
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) | X | | Frequency Division Multiplexing is used in wireline systems such as CATV-Community Antenna TeleVision and DSL-Digital Subscriber Line systems. This form of FDM is also called Broadband Multiplexing o...more |
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) | X | | IPTV delivers a digital television service to subscribers
via the Internet Protocol over a broadband connection....more |
Voice over IP (VoIP) | X | | A real-time communications system that converts voice into digital packets containing media and signaling data that travel over networks using Internet Protocol....more |
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