Network quality has long played a large role in how U.S. telco providers position their brand, with carriers heavily promoting their signal strength, coverage maps, and download speeds. But NPS Prism findings from over 80,000 U.S. telco customers suggest other criteria might matter more to customers. Our journey-level data suggests that with network parity drawing closer, the most valuable opportunities to pull ahead in CX lie in offering mobile customers strong customer service and accurate billing.
Additionally, customers who bundle their mobile service with internet and video report greater advocacy, making a strong case for multi-product providers to prioritize strengthening mobile customer experience
When it comes to network-related elements like call quality, network reliability, and network speed, the spread between the best and worst performers is noticeably narrower than in billing, service, and plan-related categories.
Network speed and reliability show competitive gaps of only 14 and 20 percentage points across the industry, with the top performers, Mint Mobile and Consumer Cellular, sitting just 7 and 12 percentage points above average, respectively. Consumers across providers are experiencing increasingly similar network quality, making this technical differentiation more table stakes.
The elements with the widest satisfaction gaps are the ones closest to the customer relationships – primarily touchpoints related to billing, customer service, and offers for plan and bundling options. Providers today are more likely to see dissatisfaction over billing discrepancies, hold times, or plan options than call quality or network speed.
This is good news for business leaders and CX teams alike, as these are areas that can be improved without costly network investment and where experience measures can have an outsized impact.
Across the industry, “accuracy of billing” and “customer service” are the product attributes with the largest competitive gap and carry heavy NPS point penalties of 73 and 74 points, respectively, if customers are not satisfied with these elements.
Mint Mobile leads the industry in accuracy of billing, with 79% of customers rating their experience as strong, but the industry laggard saw only 48% of customers say the same. As this is one of the largest gaps of all mobile product attributes, closing it is a high-impact CX investment for major carriers.
Consumer Cellular and Mint Mobile’s lead in customer service and billing accuracy, respectively, demonstrate that smaller, more niche, carriers are excelling in brand differentiation by offering a strong customer experience. Large carriers need to close this gap before it defines the category, by prioritizing areas like better issue resolution and clear, accurate billing.
Not only can strengthening billing and customer service close competitive gaps at the journey and product level, but the better experience can also encourage expanded product ownership.
NPS Prism data on five major providers with a mix of mobile, internet, and video offerings shows a consistent and striking pattern: customers who bundle more products with one provider report meaningfully higher mobile product NPS scores.
Across these players, the product NPS when customers owned two and three products as opposed to one was 10+ points and 16+ points higher, respectively. Customers who are bundling additional products with their mobile provider have stronger advocacy for their mobile service. The difference is not necessarily in the product, but in the fact that customers with bundled products tend to be happier with their mobile service.
By differentiating the mobile customer experience in the journeys most important to customers, providers can strengthen the appeal of bundle offers and create customers who are not only spending more, but are more likely to advocate for your brand.
Network parity is closer than advertised. As mobile service providers evolve their strategies, we predict that the providers that will win on loyalty are those who act now to invest resources in customer service and accelerate product bundling strategies.
A personalized competitive review from NPS Prism shows you which other journey moments are moving the needle right now, what's driving the gaps, and where to direct investment before the window closes. Request a personalized snapshot and see the competitive picture your internal data can’t provide.