Epsi rating results:

Finnet the best telephone company 2005, according to customers!
Saunalahti dropped considerably on the mobile side!

These are some of the results from the latest EPSI Rating study concerning telephone companies in Finland. The same study was done in every Nordic country, in every Baltic country and in Russia. In the study the private customers' satisfaction and loyalty to their telephone company, among other things, was measured. In Finland, the customers expressed their opinions concerning their Internet-operator, mobile phone operator, and fixed telephone line operator.

Concerning satisfaction with their Internet-connections, the results are below.

The best satisfaction scores were given to Finnet (index 68,3). Next becomes the group Other operators with index 65,8. The other operators group includes such operators as Saunalahti, MTV3, cable TV companies etc.  Elisa receives a customer satisfaction index of 66,4 and Sonera 64,2. The differences between these operators are not significant .

When the reasons for the differences in customer satisfaction are inspected, it could be seen that the differences in technical quality are not significant between companies. They all work reasonably well. In the level of customer service instead, the differences are clear.  Among the large operators, Finnet receives the best scores in service quality, according to its Internet customers. To the pricing issues, the Other companies group and also Finnet receive best scores.
 
Concerning the mobile phone connections, the best scores are given by DNA's (Finnet) customers (index 72,2), then Sonera (69,2), and Elisa (68,8). This year, the lowest scores are given to Saunalahti, who received the best scores in customer satisfaction last year.

  Tele Finland and Kolumbus (the other brands of Sonera and Elisa) do to receive reasonably high scores from their customers. However, the number of observations in the study is not high enough that own indexes can be calculated for Tele Finland and Kolumbus. The common index calculated to them would be 72,9 and it is considerably higher than Sonera's and Elisa's respective indexes.

When the reasons for the differences in customer satisfaction with mobile phone operators are inspected, it seems that they all work technically well enough. Customer service seems to work best at Sonera and DNA. Concerning pricing, all the other operators than Elisa and Sonera receive reasonably good index points. Saunalahti who was last year's number one, still receives good points for its technical quality and pricing, but not for its customer service.

When it comes to fixed telephone lines, Finnet receives the best scores also in this respect with 76,7. Sonera and Elisa receive both a score 71,1 (when transformed to the scale 0 - 100).

Finnet seems to be, according to private customers, the best telephone company in customer satisfaction in all there sectors: Internet connections, mobile phone connections and fixed line connections. Finnet is different from the telephone other companies so that its customers satisfaction is best balanced. Its customers are reasonably satisfied with its technical quality, customer service and also with its pricing.

In Sweden the most dissatisfied mobile phone customers and in Lithuania the most satisfied!

The same study was done in every Nordic country, in every Baltic country and in Russia.

From those countries, the most dissatisfied mobile phone customers were in Sweden, customer satisfaction index 66,2. The most satisfied customers were in Lithuania, index 78,4.

Mobile customers in Norway have increased their satisfaction during the last few years, as well as have been done in Denmark and Russia, while the Finnish customers have lowered their satisfaction levels slightly during the same period. The spread between providers is highest in Denmark and Norway, while it is very low in Sweden.

The EPSI Rating study

The data for the research was gathered by telephone interviews. The respondents were asked to evaluate the operator they primarily use in their household. The respondents were selected by randomization procedures to participate to the study. Totally 250 respondents were interviewed from each major company.

This research is part of European Customer Satisfaction Research, EPSI Rating. It is coordinated by the Institutet för Kvalitetsutveckling and the Stockholm School of Economics.

European quality organizations the European Foundation for Quality Management and the European Organisation for Quality are backing the research, along with the International Foundation for Customer Focus. The research is coordinated in Finland by Dr. Juhani Kuokkanen.

In Sweden, the same methodology has been in use since the year 1989, and there the study already covers a major portion of the national economy. In Finland as well, it is the intention to gradually expand the research to cover the Finnish economy. In a few weeks, the results from insurance companies, supermarket chains, "do-it-yourself" chains, and electricity companies will be released.  For more information, and press material also in Finnish, see the EPSI Finland web-site: www.epsi-finland.org.

For additional information, please contact:

Dr. Juhani Kuokkanen phone: +358 40 5093401, e-mail: juhani.kuokkanen@globalresearch.fi
  juhani.kuokkanen@epsi-finland.org

Docent Jan Eklöf  phone: +46 70 6964185, e-mail: jan.eklof@epsi-rating.com
Internet: www.epsi-rating-com