• by Aaron Baar , August 3, 2015

Wireless customers who opt for device installment plans are less satisfied with their customer service experience than those who aren’t. As more customers move to those plans (egged on by their providers), it could cause some problems in the industry. 

According to J.D. Power’s 13th annual Wireless Customer Care studies, customers who are on equipment install plans — in which a device is leased over a specific time period — have a lower overall satisfaction level than those who have more traditional service contracts. Those satisfaction levels remain lower regardless of how the customer contacts the wireless provider (automated response system, customer service representative, online or in retail stores).

Customers who have equipment installment plans also contact their carriers more frequently, tend to be transferred to other customer service representatives more often, and spend more time trying to get their problems solved, than those with traditional plans. 

The reason, says Kirk Parsons, senior director and technology, media and telecom practice leader at J.D. Power, is because the equipment installment plans themselves tend to be more complex (and unfamiliar) than the traditional plans. “That’s why you get higher rates of people calling in, and that’s why those calls are taking longer,” Parsons tells Marketing Daily.

As more customers move to these equipment installment plans (and the industry encourages them to do so), the wireless providers will have to implement more and better customer-care training and options to keep those satisfaction levels from sliding, Parsons says. 

“Improving satisfaction among EIP customers is an opportunity for the industry as the share of such customers is rising,” he says. “It’s a matter of how people adjust to these new plans and how [the industry] is going to adjust is something we’re going to be tracking.”