Clarifying quality

Yesterday, U.S. Cellular launched wireless service in the Chicago market--the result of having acquired the spectrum licenses and network assets (but not the annoying pink alien mascot) of the now-defunct PrimeCo for $610 million. Given that Chicago is the carrier’s home base, the launch was done Chicago-style (yes, there is such a thing--it isn’t just a way to top a hot dog), complete with an event at the historic Chicago Theater, $15,000 and 3000 teddy bears donated to a Chicago children’s charity, several hundred new jobs created for Chicagoans, a slew of luminaries from various Chicago institutions, and Chicago actress Joan Cusack (who is neither annoying, nor pink, nor an alien--or is she?) as the carrier’s new celebrity pitchwoman.

The event was mostly a feel-good, pat-themselves-on-the-back kind of thing for U.S. Cellular (which is fine--who can complain about civic pride, teddy bears, charity donations and local celebrities who are most likely not aliens?). From a wireless industry standpoint, however, the launch raised an intriguing question about quality that has become a paramount issue in the wireless sector and, in fact, throughout telecom.

U.S. Cellular’s tagline is “We connect with you,” a reference to the customer service on which the carrier prides itself--as does the company’s president and CEO, Jack Rooney, who repeated a similar customer service mantra when he used to run Ameritech Cellular. The problem, as I see it, is how the somewhat nebulous concept of quality is defined and measured--and how a wireless carrier that hangs its hat on quality is held accountable for its claims.

To be fair, U.S. Cellular has a pretty good answer--as well as such a question could be answered. At the launch event, the company’s executive vice president of operations, Jay Ellison, told Telephony that U.S. Cellular puts its customer service agents through rigorous six-week call center training and has several internal and external measures of both associate and customer satisfaction--including a first-call resolution metric for customers with issues and a “Pro Call” outbound calling campaign that checks up on customers’ degree of satisfaction. The company also cited a recent Yankee Group mobile user survey that ranked U.S. Cellular the highest in customer service.

I can’t help but wonder, though, if the real measure of quality for any telecom service provider--whether it be quality of service, quality of the network or quality of customer care--goes back to the very prominent issue of how much money it spends. (For its part, U.S. Cellular has committed to investing an additional $90 million in its Illinois network alone, with plans to add 81 more towers and another 12 retail stores and 55 agent locations over the next 14 months.) The only real way for a carrier to ensure that it has a state-of-the-art network, top-quality service and flawless customer care practices is to invest in the best and most up-to-date technologies, facilities and people. And in this era of dramatically reduced capex spending, there’s not a lot of that going on.

It’s good to see that a carrier like U.S. Cellular is able to maintain that level of investment. Let’s hope its customers see tangible results, and that other carriers--of all varieties, not just wireless--are soon able to follow its lead.

E-mail me at: jmeyers@primediabusiness.com