(Costa Mesa, CA – Insurance News 360) – Consumers are happier with their telecommunications services when service technicians are on time for appointments and provide more precise service windows. The results of the inaugural J.D. Power U.S. Telecom In-Home Service Technician Study, released on March 22.

Longer service windows and early or late arrivals negatively impact customer satisfaction.

The study looked at consumer perceptions of on-site service technician visits for high speed data, phone and TV service installation and service. There were six attributes examined in this study:   quality of work; timeliness of completing work; knowledge of technician; courtesy of technician; professionalism of technician; and scheduling an appointment.

“The more flexible telecom companies can be with offering service windows that work with their customers’ schedules and the more precise they are at hitting those target times, the higher levels of customer satisfaction they can realize,” said Peter Cunningham, Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Practice Lead at J.D. Power. “Though this may seem like common sense, there are huge performance gaps among the different providers. Those that are getting it right have developed strong skill sets in both managing customer expectations and delivering on them.”

The study revealed the following things:

Shorter service windows are associated with higher satisfaction: Scheduling an appointment satisfaction is 49 points higher among customers with service windows of one hour or less than among those with a two-hour window. That gap jumps to 104 points when customers are given a four-hour window.

Customers are happier when technicians arrive on the right day, on time. Although overall satisfaction for punctual technicians was 871, it dropped to 819 when technicians were early and 683 when they were late (and this includes technicians who come on the wrong day).

Customers are happier when technicians fix problems on a single visit. Those whose issues require multiple visits are more likely to indicate that they will switch services.

Customers appreciate contact prior to technician arrival. According to the survey, customer satisfaction is 138 points higher when a technician contacted them prior to arrival.

Customers are happier when they can schedule appointments online. Use of digital channels to schedule appointments leads to greater customer satisfaction than when customers must use the telephone.

Study Rankings

DISH Network ranks highest in telecommunications in-home service technician satisfaction with a score of 885. Charter Spectrum ranks second (860), AT&T/DIRECTV (859) ranks third and Verizon (856) ranks fourth. The industry average is 853.

The 2018 U.S. Telecom In-Home Service Technician Study was fielded in December 2017-January 2018, collecting 3,744 responses. To be eligible to participate, respondents needed to have an in-home telecom service technician visit in the past six months.

For more information about the 2018 U.S. Telecom In-Home Service Technician Study, visit http://www.jdpower.com/resource/us-telecom-home-service-technician-study.

Source: J.D. Power.