• by Kevin Ransom , May 12, 2008

America's love affair with the automobile has been matched by its love affair with the cell phone. People seem very happy to be using them, and often wonder how they lived without them. 

But, the actual process of buying a cell phone and dealing with sales reps--well, that appears to be another story. According to the "2008 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction Study" conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, overall customer satisfaction with the wireless retail sales experience has steadily decreased since 2006--driven in large part by dissatisfaction with the quality and accuracy of product information and promotional incentives.

Based on its survey findings, J.D. Power ranked T-Mobile highest in customer satisfaction among major wireless carrier-owned retail stores, with a score of 716 on a 1,000-point scale, performing particularly well in the sales staff and store display factors. Alltel ranked second with 714 points, then Verizon Wireless, 706; AT&T, 693; and Sprint Nextel, 654.

This J.D. Power study has been conducted semiannually for five years, and it analyzes the evaluations reported by customers who recently had a wireless retail sales experience. Power's measurement of overall customer satisfaction with major wireless carrier-branded stores is based on four factors. In order of importance, they are: sales staff (51%); store display (17%); store facility (16%); and price/promotion (16%).

This latest study concludes that overall satisfaction with the wireless retail sales experience has reached its lowest level since 2005. And, for 2008, the satisfaction rating has declined to 699 points--down 10 points from the last reporting period (October 2007), and down 17 points since May 2007.

"As phone and service plans become more complex, the customer's need for easy-to-understand product information has become even more paramount," says Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "And the increased usage of 'smart-phone' type phones has created a greater need for sales reps to demonstrate how the devices work."

The chief sales-staff complaints reported by customers in the study were that sales reps typically "did not have enough knowledge about the products being offered, and that they did not explain the service-plan differences in more detail," says Parsons.

And when it came to store-display beefs, many respondents complained about "not being able to have enough physical access to the phones--not being able to handle them and play with them before making the purchase," Parsons adds. Another issue that needs to be improved, according to survey respondents, is the variety of phones on display; there should be more. Customers were also particularly dissatisfied with the rebates offered on phones.