CFI: Customers prefer telco bundles to cable

Research firm the CFI Group, which sprang forth from the University of Michigan to study customer satisfaction issues across multiple industries, has announced the results of its annual Telecom-Cable Industry Satisfaction Study. The survey, which consulted more than 1,200 consumer households, found that consumers interested in bundled services are more interested in buying them from a telco by a 2 to 1 margin. That is a much wider margin than in last year's survey, which found that 54 percent preferred telco bundles and 44 percent preferred cable companies.

Higher rates and the perception of poor service quality from cable companies were the biggest reasons the group lost out to telcos. CFI uses the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index and measures customer satisfaction for broadband internet, video, wireless and other services. The agency noted that cable company bundles are still much more widely available than telco bundles--only 2 percent of those surveyed were active users of telco video services.

"The cable companies are asleep at the wheel if they don't see the threat from the telecoms," said Phil Doriot, program director for CFI Group in a press release. "But the network upgrades aren't going to happen overnight, so cable companies still have the opportunity to improve their customer service and cover their Achilles heel."

For more:
The full CFI report is available at no charge at http://www.cfigroup.com/ [1]