In Q1 2015 58 percent of consumers found price to be a reason to recommend their mobile provider, followed by 55 percent for reliability and 51 percent for quality/coverage of network. In 2012 the respective shares stood at 63 percent, 59 and 64 percent. The following two most important reasons in Q1 2015 were plans on offer and customer service. Plans on offer remained stable compared to Q4 2012, but customer service has also seen a small decline. This drop in share of the these top reasons was in favour of some of the other reasons, which were less popular in Q4 2012, for example promotions, technical support and accessibility of customer service (which falls outside of the top ten with 11 percent of consumers mentioning it in Q1 2015, vs 8 percent in Q4 2012).
Other reasons featuring in the top ten were the choice of plans on offer, the attitude of the provider’s employees (such as flexibility, customer friendliness and keeping to appointments), the billing method and the providers’ reputation. The shares of these reasons remained fairly stable over the two periods.
When looking at the reasons for choosing a particular plan, the monthly price and brand/type of mobile phone remain the two most important reasons, although they both have become less important. In Q4 2012 price was the most common reason (49%) for choosing a particular postpaid plan or prepaid connection, while this had declined to 39 percent in Q1 2015. In Q4 2012 other important aspects were the number of MBs, SMS and minutes included and their associated costs as well as the cost of the mobile phone.
In Q1 2015 however several service related aspects have become more important for the consumer. The provider’s image for example had grown to a 19 percent share (vs 9 percent in Q4 2012), the service quality of the provider had increased from 6 percent in Q4 2012 to 15 percent in Q1 2015 and the network quality had risen from 13 percent to 20 percent. An aspect not included in 2012 was the ability to choose the level of MBs, minutes and SMS, which is a service that 18 percent of consumers gave as a reason for choosing their connection.
Although it is not possible to draw direct conclusions, it does seem that price has become less important for consumers while service related elements have become more important.
Telecompaper’s Consumer Panel questioned 2,325 consumers in Q1 2015 and 2,908 consumers in Q4 2012 about their reasons for recommending their mobile provider, using the NPS scoring system, as well as the reasons for choosing a particular mobile plan. This article covers those respondents who had provided 8-10 as their answers to the questions, hence those in the NPS system who would recommend their provider.
