Optimum Business, Verizon Top J.D. Power Poll

Optimum Business ranks highest in satisfying home-based and small and medium business customers with telecommunications data services, while Verizon Communications Inc. ranks highest among customers in the large enterprise business segment, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Study released this week.

The study measures customer satisfaction with providers of telecommunications data services, such as cable modem, DSL, T1, T3/DS3, Ethernet and frame relay. Providers are ranked in three segments: home-based businesses (companies based in a residential location with one to five employees), SMB (companies with two to 499 employees) and large enterprise businesses (companies with 500 or more employees). Five factors are used to measure satisfaction across all three segments: performance and reliability; billing; cost of service; offerings and promotions; and customer service. A sixth factor — sales representatives/account executives — is included for SMB and large enterprise businesses.

The 2009 study is based on responses from 4,252 business customers with telecommunications data services at home-based, small and medium, and large enterprise businesses in the United States fielded in January and April 2009.

With an index score of 654 on a 1,000-point scale, Optimum Business by Cablevision Corp. ranks highest in the home-based business segment (637), EMBARQ Corp. (629), Verizon (626), Qwest Communications International Inc. (625), AT&T Inc. (617), Time Warner Cable Inc. (589), Comcast Corp. (570) and Charter Communications (535). The average score for the segment was 601.

Optimum Business also ranks highest in the SMB segment with a score of 673, performing particularly well in four of the six factors driving satisfaction: sales representatives/account executives; billing; cost of service; and offerings and promotions.

Other carrier scores for the SMB segment were as follows: Cox (669), AT&T (632), Verizon (629), Comcast (621), Time Warner Cable (598) and Qwest (592). The average score for the segment was 627.

In the large enterprise business segment, Verizon ranks highest in customer satisfaction with a score of 694, performing particularly well in five factors: performance and reliability; sales representatives/account executives; customer service; cost of service; and offerings and promotions.