While still leaving plenty of room for improvement, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable reported major improvements in the 2016 ASCI Telecommunications Report, which ranks customer satisfaction with telecom services.
Overall, on ASCI's 100 point scale, the cable sector improved 3.2 percent over 2015 in the TV services rankings, with Comcast up eight points, or 15 percent, to score an overall grade of 62. TWC was also up eight points, or 16 percent, to a grade of 59.
Suddenlink also reported a significantly improved grade for pay-TV services, up five points to 62 — a 9 percent year over year improvement.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS again led the pay-TV rankings, despite being down 1 point to 70. AT&T (NYSE: T) U-verse was second, holding flat with a score of 70. DirecTV (third place at 68) and Dish Network (fourth place at 67) also held flat with their 2015 score.
Mediacom finished dead last, despite improving to a 54 score. Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) (down three points, or 5 percent to a 60) and Cox Communications (also down three points, or 5 percent to a 59 score) were the biggest customer satisfaction decliners in pay-TV, according to ASCI.
"It's not too hard for cable companies to improve when their starting point is the cellar," said ACSI Managing Director David VanAmburg. "But for Charter Communications, its challenge will be to keep satisfaction levels from falling in the wake of a merger because ACSI data show that there tends to be a drop in customer satisfaction as companies combine operations and customer accounts."
ASCI ranked ISPs, fixed-line telephone service providers, wireless telephone service operators and cell phone manufacturers on a 100-point scale. The industry overall scored a 70.1 this year, a 1.9 percent improvement.
In the realm of Internet service, Verizon climbed 7 percent for an industry-leading 73 customer satisfaction score, while Charter was up 11 points to a 63. Comcast was also up 5 percent to a 59 score, while AT&T dropped seven points to 64.
For Comcast, the improvements help to validate what the company touts as a $300 million investment into customer service improvements.
For more:
- read this ASCI press release
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