Customer Satisfaction Survey results including P6
The 2000 Annual ISP Customer Satisfaction Survey
ISP Customers Habits, Likes and Dislikes
By Max Smetannikov and Rebecca Wetzel, Inter@ctive
Week
September 18, 2000 7:04 AM ET
By Rebecca Wetzel
This year's Internet service provider survey is a treasure
trove of information about the habits, likes and dislikes of
Inter@ctive Week readers who use the Net for business,
showing significant trends when compared with results
from past years. The data sheds light on how our
readers connect to the Internet, what they look for in an
ISP, what they like and dislike about their primary ISP,
and whether or not they plan to stick with their current
ISP.
Respondents by connection type
Dicing survey participants by connection type shows
that Digital Subscriber Line and cable are making
inroads as the Internet connection methods of choice.
Sixteen percent of respondents use DSL for their
business Internet connection, up from 7 percent last
year. Cable modem converts increased from 5 percent to
9 percent, while users with T1 (1.5-megabit-per-second)
and T3 (45-Mbps) connections declined from 45 percent
to 29 percent of the survey population. Dial-up held its
own at 35 percent - up some from last year's 31 percent,
but down from 45 percent two years ago.
Wireless point-to-point crept onto the scene for the first
time this year, with a 1 percent blip - matching the
percentage of respondents with OC-3 (155-Mbps)
connections. Integrated Services Digital Network use is
waning, with only 7 percent of respondents connecting
via ISDN. That's down from 9 percent last year and 11
percent the year before. A few 56-kilobit-per-second
frame relay stalwarts remain, constituting 2 percent of
the sample, the same as last year.
What's important to customers
Six attributes - listed in descending order - stand out as
most important when surveyed customers choose the
primary ISP for their business: network reliability, value
for price, network performance, customer service
responsiveness, technical support and time to get up
and running. A second tier of attributes includes network
capacity, availability of broadband service and network
reach. Lesser attributes are bracketed by reputation at
the top, and brand awareness at the bottom.
Network reliability
Network reliability - defined as the percentage of the time
the network is up - is now, and shows signs of forever
being, the No. 1 customer requirement of an ISP. For the
fourth year running, network reliability topped the list of
attributes most important to ISP customers.
Although its relative importance is no surprise in this
year's survey, the ISP with customers most satisfied
with network reliability is surprising - the newly merged
Prodigy Communications/FlashNet Communications.
Prodigy/FlashNet's mean satisfaction rating for network
reliability is 4.26, followed by WorldCom siblings UUnet,
with 4.01, and MCI WorldCom with 3.95, PSINet at 3.94
and EarthLink at 3.91. Eighty-six percent of customers
polled describe themselves as extremely or somewhat
satisfied with Prodigy/FlashNet's network reliability - 10
percent more than UUnet, the nearest contender. Least
content with network reliability are Verio's customers,
who give it a mean rating of 2.81, and 50 percent of
whom describe themselves as extremely or somewhat
dissatisfied.
Value for the price
Like all good consumers, ISP customers want to make
sure they get what they need at the best possible price.
This penchant ranks value for the price second on the
list of attributes important in choosing an ISP.
EarthLink's customers are most satisfied with the value
received for the price they pay. EarthLink's customers
give the company a mean rating of 3.90, followed by its
alter ego MindSpring with a mean rating of 3.86. MSN
weighs in at 3.82, Pacific Bell at 3.81 and Excite@Home
at 3.76. Seventy-six percent of EarthLink's and 74
percent of MindSpring's customers describe themselves
as extremely or somewhat satisfied with the price of the
service they are receiving, compared with only 25
percent of Verio's customers. Verio received the lowest
mean satisfaction rating for price at 2.93.
Network performance
Network performance, as defined by such metrics as
delays and packet loss, is a very close third to price in
importance to the customers surveyed. First in the eyes
of customers on this metric is MCI WorldCom. The
company gets a mean rating of 3.92 from its customers,
77 percent of whom are extremely or somewhat satisfied
with its network performance. Prodigy/FlashNet follows
with a mean rating of 3.88, tailed by UUnet at 3.83,
PSINet at 3.80 and Sprint, whose mean satisfaction
rating was 3.79. Although Prodigy/FlashNet has a higher
mean rating, a higher percentage of UUnet and PSINet
customers are extremely or somewhat satisfied - 73
percent and 70 percent respectively, compared with 66
percent for Prodigy/FlashNet.
Again bringing up the rear is Verio, with a mean rating of
2.8. Forty-one percent of Verio's customers surveyed are
extremely or somewhat dissatisfied with the performance
of Verio's network.
Customer service responsiveness
Customers want attention quickly when things go awry
or when they have questions. MindSpring's and
EarthLink's customers feel most strongly that they
receive the service they need when they need it.
MindSpring's customers give the company a mean
satisfaction rating of 3.94 for customer responsiveness,
compared with EarthLink's 3.85, PSINet's 3.71, UUnet's
3.58 and Sprint's, 3.57. Again, Verio's customers
apparently do not feel well cared for, as they dole out the
lowest mean satisfaction for customer service
responsiveness: 2.64.
Sixty-eight percent of EarthLink and 67 percent of
MindSpring customers surveyed indicate that they are
extremely or somewhat satisfied with the customer
service they receive. Unlike any competing services,
none of MindSpring's customers describe themselves as
extremely dissatisfied.
Technical support
As with customer service responsiveness, happiest with
the technical support that they receive are customers of
MindSpring, followed by EarthLink, with mean
satisfaction ratings of 3.93 and 3.84, respectively.
Following them are PSINet at 3.76, UUnet and Sprint,
both at 3.73, and MCI WorldCom at 3.7. Receiving
points for consistency only is Verio, with the lowest
mean satisfaction rating of 2.78 for technical support.
Start-up time
Time to get the service up and running is ranked very
high - sixth - in importance for dial-up customers, and
dial-up ISPs EarthLink, MindSpring and MSN fare best
when rated on this metric. EarthLink receives a mean
rating of 4.19; MindSpring, 3.94; and MSN, 3.89. Not to
rub salt in a wound, but Verio's customers are the least
happy of the lot on this attribute as well, bestowing a 3
mean rating.
Network capacity
The ability of a network to scale with growth ranks
among the top 10 important attributes for leased line
customers. Predictably, Internet services that live within
carriers rate highest with their customers when it comes
to network capacity. WorldCom's MCI Internet service
brand receives a 4.17 mean satisfaction score for
network capacity, followed by Sprint with a rating of 4
and WorldCom's UUnet brand, which receives a 3.97.
America Online customers are the least happy with their
provider's network capacity, giving it the lowest mean
satisfaction score of 3.3.
Customer churn
In another metric, 30 percent of the customers surveyed
describe themselves as somewhat or extremely likely to
switch ISPs within the next 12 months, with 50 percent
extremely or somewhat unlikely to switch. The
percentage of customers considering switching is up
from 27 percent last year.
The percentage of customers who actually did switch is
also up from last year. In our 1999 survey, 20 percent of
customers surveyed had changed service providers in
the previous year. This year 22 percent switched. This
portends an increase in customer churn, rather than the
decrease that ISPs have been hoping for. It also
indicates that customers are becoming more particular
and more knowledgeable about what they want as they
play the field.
There is strong reason to believe that customers
considering switching from a particular ISP are likely to
act on the thought. Last year, Cable & Wireless had one
of highest percentages of customers who described
themselves as very or somewhat likely to switch ISPs.
Of the 52 Cable & Wireless customers who responded
to the survey last year, 37.3 percent said they were
likely to switch service providers. This year, a mere 28
Cable &Wireless customers responded to the survey. To
be fair, our overall sample size is 14 percent smaller this
year than last - as the survey took place in July and
August, vacation time for many. But that doesn't entirely
explain a 46 percent drop in the number of Cable &
Wireless respondents.
Last year, Verio had one of the highest percentages of
customers likely to switch; of the 111 Verio customers
who responded to the survey, 45.5 percent described
themselves as very or somewhat likely to switch. This
year, the number of Verio customers responding to the
survey is down 62 percent to 42 and, like last year,
about 46 percent of those responding are considering
switching. We shall see what next year's survey shows.
On a positive note, several ISPs appear to have strong
customer loyalty. Most likely to remain in the fold are
customers of MSN, Genuity and MCI WorldCom.
Seventy-eight percent of MSN's customers, 76 percent
of MCI WorldCom's customers and 75 percent of
Genuity's customers are unlikely or are "neither likely.
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