Once upon a time, most of us would have ranked calling our cell phone companies at the bottom of the list (alongside root canals) of things we would most like to do. Waiting on hold to ask about unknown charges or changes to our contracts often took up hours every month. For this reason, wireless companies had some of the lowest customer satisfaction scores of any industry.

It seems now that wireless telecom providers are getting the message. According to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Wireless Customer Care Study — Volume 1, wireless providers are solving customer issues faster than ever before. This decrease in problem resolution time across digital (website and app), phone and in-store channels is driving significant improvements in customer satisfaction, up 14 points (on a 1,000-point scale) to 808 in 2023. Improved satisfaction is important for wireless companies, as it leads to a higher rate of returning customers, higher monthly spending and an increase in brand loyalty.

The study, which was released in February, is based on responses from 15,940 customers who contacted their carrier’s customer care department within the past three months. The studies evaluate customer care experiences across 6 factors: store service; phone service; website service; app service; social media service; and text service. The studies were fielded from July through December 2022.

T-Mobile (News - Alert) took the highest ranking in the mobile network operators segment with a score of 829 for the 11th consecutive volume. Metro by T-Mobile ranked highest in the mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) segment with a score of 832, followed by Cricket (830) and Boost Mobile (825). Consumer Cellular ranked the highest in the value mobile virtual network operators’ segment for the 14th consecutive volume with a score of 869, followed by Mint Mobile (864).

“After a period of fighting through staffing challenges and investing heavily in more dynamic, advanced tool-enabled digital customer support solutions, wireless providers are now reaping the dividends of that hard work in the form of faster customer care resolution and more satisfied customers,” said Ian Greenblatt, managing director of technology, media & telecom at J.D. Power. “It is particularly noteworthy that we’re seeing consistent improvement in both digital/automated and live channels via interaction with in-store and phone-based representatives. It is clear from the data that the top-performing wireless providers take a systemic, channel-coordinated approach to customer care and problem resolution.”