One graph we did not include in the recent NCSS report is the complaints about how hard it was to find the phone number to call customer service (at right).
In our research we found a lot of these complaints, and it wasn’t surprising. Companies have been “hiding the ball” for years, and it’s rare to find a company’s phone number on the homepage of its website. Customers also frequently complained that they couldn’t find a number to call on their statements or bills.
The differences between companies in these complaints was statistically very significant, with Verizon, Chase, and AT&T posting particularly large numbers, and this was clearly a source of great frustration for some customers.
As much as I like this data, I cut it from the final report because we recruit NCSS survey participants by advertising on Google. That means there is likely a bias towards customers who had a hard time finding a way to reach customer service. The recruitment process for each company is identical, so I think the comparisons between companies are valid. Nevertheless, I can’t prove that. So, regretfully, I felt I had to cut one of the more interesting comparisons from the published report.
