Oh how the mighty have fallen as the bad news day for T-Mobile continues after their quarterly earnings show yet another quarter of customer losses, a new JD Power study once again places T-Mobile in dead last.

This semi-annual study “evaluates the wireless purchase experience of customers using any one of three contact channels: phone calls with sales representatives; visits to a retail wireless store; and on the Web. Overall customer satisfaction with both full-service and non-contract branded carriers is based on six factors (in order of importance): store sales representative; website; phone sales representative; store facility; offerings and promotions; and cost of service.”

The JD Power survey is conducted with responses from 8,047 wireless customers who are current subscribers who report having a sales transaction with their current carrier within in the past six months. The study is conducted between January and June 2012.

Seriously, what is this world coming to that Sprint is now first in Purchase Experience and T-Mobile is last? This is a cruel joke right?

I’ve pinged T-Mobile for a comment and will update the post when I hear back.

JD Power

Internal statement going out to all sales channels:

Today J.D. Power and Associates (JDP) announced results of the latest Wireless Purchase Experience study.  T-Mobile finished fourth among the national carriers. Sprint placed first.

This study measures several different purchase experience factors, but almost half the weighting rests on behaviors we can control in our stores – promptness, knowledge, courtesy, timeliness, and concern for the customer’s needs. While fourth place is a disappointing showing for a team familiar with being on top of these rankings, we improved in all behaviors since the last study results in February. That tells me our work this year to focus on the customer is moving us in the right direction. And the scores we’re seeing in our Secret Shop program confirm this trend.

While we must always be prompt, courteous, timely, and show concern for our customers, the one behavior that is a critical opportunity for this team is knowledge. We measure customer satisfaction using a number of tools in addition to JDP: TR*IM – an industry measure of customer satisfaction, our Secret Shop, Customer Exit Interviews and Welcome Call programs. We know from all of these measures that knowledge is the common attribute that stands out as our area of opportunity.

We introduced several new tools and programs this year to position our sales teams as knowledgeable experts. Among them: Right Fit, Drive Down Churn – Drive up Loyalty, Customer Standards, and most recently Perfect Your Pitch. All of these programs are designed to help improve sales rep knowledge when speaking with a customer.

The more knowledgeable we are about our products and services, the better equipped we are to make a lasting, quality sale that leaves us with a lasting, quality customer – something we can all be proud of.

I am asking all our Field Sales leaders – from the VPs down to Store Managers – to be accountable for the knowledge of their teams. That means ensuring all training is completed and coaching takes place on the sales floor to test and improve knowledge. We will continue to monitor the customer service scores of our stores and districts and will make necessary changes to improve our knowledge scores.

The competitive nature of our industry creates an environment where the sharper your selling skills are the more successful you’ll be. Let’s take advantage of that opportunity and return T-Mobile to our JDP winning ways.