Virgin Tops Australian Mobile Phone Customer Satisfaction

In the six months to January 2010, Virgin Mobile Australia continued to lead mobile phone customer satisfaction in the country, with 80.2% of customers being "very" or "fairly" satisfied with their service, followed by Vodafone (75.7%), slightly ahead of 3 Mobile (75.2%) for the first time in the survey period. The overall industry satisfaction has remained relatively stable at 67.9%, reports a survey by Roy Morgan Research.

Four out of the five major Australian mobile phone market players have improved their customer satisfaction ratings in the six months to January 2010 compared to the six months to August 2009, with Virgin (up by 10.7 %pts), Vodafone (up by 10.4 %pts), 3 (up by 5.3 %pts) and Optus (up by 4.0 %pts). This increased the gap between them and the market leader, Telstra (60.3%), who continued to fall behind the industry average (67.9%) and was the only major company to record a drop in satisfaction over the survey period.

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, says "Virgin is still the top performer and continues to increase customer satisfaction. However Vodafone has also shown a further increase in performance to get slightly ahead of its counterpart 3 Mobile. With Vodafone and 3 Mobile positioning themselves comfortably as the number 2 and 3 providers in terms of customer satisfaction, it continues to show that the now merged company VHA is paying close attention to their customer needs and making sure they are keeping their customers satisfied. Virgin, however, continues to improve its customer satisfaction rating, resisting Vodafone's attempt to bridge the gap."