Cox tops LD customer satisfaction survey

Cox Communications became the first cable company to top J.D. Power & Associates’ customer satisfaction ranking of long-distance telephony providers this week.

Cox scored particularly high (earning five out of a possible five points) in areas of performance and reliability, billing, and image. Talk America, which ranked second, scored higher than Cox in the cost and customer-service categories but lower than Cox in areas of image and performance and reliability.

The J.D. Power survey, which was based on a representative sample of more than 10,500 households, was changed for 2004 to separate standalone long-distance telephony service from that which is bundled with other telecom services. Cox topped the list pertaining to bundled services. Among customers receiving long distance as a standalone service, Qwest Communications ranked highest this year, scoring especially high in the areas of billing, customer service, performance and reliability, and cost.

The top ten providers of bundled long-distance telephony in the survey were:

1. Cox Communications

2. Talk America

3. BellSouth

4. Cincinnati Bell

5. AT&T

6. SBC Communications

7. Verizon Communications

8. Qwest Communications

9. MCI

10. McLeodUSA

The top providers of standalone long-distance telephony were:

1. Qwest Communications

2. Verizon Communications

3. AT&T

4. Sprint

5. Excel

6. MCI

In 2003, Cox ranked highest in the Western region of J.D. Power’s local residential telephony customer satisfaction survey, scoring five out of a possible five points in all categories. In June Cox launched its thirteenth telephony market, Northern Virginia. And at the end of this year’s first quarter, the company reported a total of more than 1 million telephony subscribers.