Just stumbled across some statistics in a study which polled iPhone users to see if they were unhappy with their current network and were planning to switch networks, and which network they planned to switch to:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/consumer/o...issatisfaction

Some interesting results to analyse there - of existing iPhone users, Orange customers were the ones most wanting to switch to a different network, (15%) followed by T-Mobile, then O2. Vodafone and 3 were joint equal on 9% as having the iPhone customers least wanting to ditch them and leave for another network.

However if you look at the statistics of which networks disgruntled users wanted to switch to, the picture is dramatically different - Vodafone came first, with O2 very close behind, and a long long way behind were Orange, 3, and T-Mobile in that order.

This stark contrast is interesting, because I think the percentage of customers wanting to switch on the left hand chart is an indication of actual customer satisfaction - the happier you are with your network, the less likely you are to go looking elsewhere, right ?

On the other hand, the percentage of customers who chose specific networks to switch to is likely based more on perceived reputation rather than actual recent experience of the network.

My interpretation of these results is - Vodafone scores highly both in customer satisfaction of existing customers, and in reputation among customers who are not currently with the network.

O2 scores highly in reputation amongst customers who are not current subscribers, but falls well short of Vodafone and 3 with actual customer satisfaction. (I'm presuming here that network quality is a bigger factor than customer service, for 3 to beat O2 in this...)

Despite 3 tying with Vodafone for satisfaction of existing iPhone customers, they came second to last in the eyes of potential new customers switching from other networks - their stigma and reputation is still so bad that people won't even consider them, with only T-Mobile getting a worse result. (My guess is 3 eeked ahead of T-Mobile due to better pricing - T-Mobile doesn't really have any stand-out tariffs, while 3 do)

Orange and T-Mobile both fared poorly - existing customers don't look very happy, and they aren't attracting many new iPhone customers from other networks either.

It really does seem from this that O2's legacy reputation far exceeds their actual current network quality of service levels, while 3's perceived reputation is still a long way below their actual current network quality of service.

Discuss