@jbtaylor on tech

Earlier today, we heard two bits of news from the folks at J.D. Power that I'm pretty proud of.

First, J.D. Power ranked the experience customers have when they visit the retails stores of the national wireless carriers. T-Mobile was ranked first, Sprint was ranked second, AT&T was ranked third and Verizon Wireless was ranked last. It's been a remarkable rise by Sprint. Just a year ago, we were last in this rating. Now were are 19 points higher.

Then, J.D. Power announced that Sprint was among 40 companies in the U.S. that they deemed "Customer Service Champions".

According to their news release:

"Brands that receive the J.D. Power Customer Service Champions designation are among the top 5 percent of more than 800 evaluated brands, based on their performance in five key areas identified as the J.D. Power 5 Ps: People, Presentation, Price, Product and Process. J.D. Power Customer Service Champions not only excel within their respective industries, but also stand out when evaluated across multiple industries."

In addition to Sprint, U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile were named to the list. Those consumer advocates and regulatory reporters who criticize the wireless industry perhaps need to stop painting with a broad brush when they make claims that the wireless industry isn't customer friendly.

This follows on the heels of the news last month from an independent wireless study which ranked Sprint customer satisfaction number one in terms of satisfaction with calls to Customer Care. According to the survey, Sprint leads all national competitors in both call satisfaction and first call resolution, two key metrics in the overall quality of customer service.

While our team is justifiably proud at our improvement, we recognize that we have more work to do. Our Chief Service Officer Bob Johnson put it best when describing our reaction to being named on of the country's 40 "Customer Service Champions." Bob said, “We are pleased to receive this distinguished honor and proud of the hard work of our employees in enhancing every customer experience. These important interactions take place in our stores, on our website or in calls to our care centers. What makes this honor especially gratifying is that we received this distinction directly from our own customers. They recognize the consistency and high quality of service we’re committed to providing. Our steadfast focus is on customer satisfaction and it will continue to be our top priority.”

Earlier this summer, J.D. Powers released its semi-annual report on wireless call quality. The company said among the major cities it surveyed, Charlotte has the poorest wireless coverage. They did not, however, provide a breakdown of where the major wireless companies stand in Charlotte; they just said on average, the coverage in Charlotte had the most problems.

That said, J.D. Powers did rank the carriers by region, and in the region where Charlotte is, Sprint tied for first with T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless. You know who was last.

Eric Frazier, a reporter with the Charlotte Observer, has a story in Sunday's paper which examines the obstacles carriers must overcome to build out an effective network. As part of this story, I arranged to give him a tour of a cell site so he could tell his readers a little bit more about the engineering that goes into ensure that you can make and receive a wireless call.

The story, while focused on Charlotte, could have been written about any metro area in the country. Because as I said in the story, no wireless company is 100 percent perfect, 100 percent of the time.

The photos I've linked to above are from the cell site tour I organized for Eric. But you'll also want to read the sidebar for the story, where Eric describes his impressions of the cell site we showed him. Just click on a box to left of the main story when you browser opens the main window.

Earlier today, J.D. Powers issued their latest survey of wireless call quality.

Sprint is now in a 3-way tie for first place in the Southeast region. (We're tied with T-Mobile and Verizon.) I think we should get the "Most Improved" award from J.D. Powers -- we were in last place in the Southeast as recently as February.

Sprint also made significant improvement in three other regions. We moved into second place in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and West regions. We retained our second place finish in the Southwest region.

The folks at ZD Net have some nifty charts which breakdown the standings. If you're a current Sprint customer, I'm interested in learning if this meshes with your experience with our network.

Let me know in the comments section.