According to a study by Roy Morgan Research (RMR), both Virgin and 3 have come out on top with more than 80% of their customers satisfied with their mobile service.

Almost 15,000 users were asked to rate their mobile phone provider’s service for the second half of 2010.

According to the study, “84% of Virgin Mobile customers and 80% of 3 customers were either “Very” or “Fairly” satisfied with their mobile phone service providers. 3 increased their satisfaction rating by 2% pts from the previous 6 months to November 2010, whilst Virgin Mobile remained steady.

Optus managed to scrape above the average with a customer satisfaction rate of 73%, and Vodafone just below the average rate with 70%.

Telstra customers gave their carrier a meagre 65%, despite Telstra announcing in February last year that they would be working to improve their customer service. Telstra’s rating improved only 3%. The average rate across all providers grew 2% in the six-month period, reaching 71%.

Andrew Braun, Director Mobile, Internet and Technology, Roy Morgan Research, said:

“The second half of 2010 has seen overall satisfaction with service providers gradually increase on the back of a resurgent Telstra, and to a lesser extent the growth in satisfaction with 3.

“Already in 2011 we have seen service providers proactively admitting service difficulties due to events such as flooding and poor coverage. Could this improved transparency and continued focus on satisfaction further improve performance in the first half of 2011?”
 
Despite many Vodafone customers experiencing major service difficulties, the mobile provider managed to lose only 4% of their customer satisfaction rate from July last year. Other factors which may have affected customer satisfaction include the cyclone which caused network interruptions in north Queensland. Most providers kept customers updated with the condition of their network and how they were working toward fixing the issues.