Monday, May 6, 2019

5G Consumer Surveys Next to Worthless Right Now

One might argue that consumer surveys asking about how much people will pay for an innovation are next to useless. The other problem, especially when polling on new products people have not yet experienced, is that responses clearly are spurious.


A recent survey of business and consumer respondents found that Apple was viewed as a leader in 5G, despite Apple having no announced plans to sell a 5G device.


Likewise, Verizon and AT&T were deemed leaders in 5G, even if most respondents have not yet used 5G from any provider. Of course, that transference of “leadership” from the existing business to 5G is at least logical. The biggest firms in 4G likely will be the biggest firms in 5G as well.


The phrase talk is cheap explains why. It also always is hard to design a good survey. But even good surveys produce bad results. And there is evidence that consumers resent surveys.


The other reality is that the link between reported satisfaction and loyalty has grown weaker. So even when consumers say they are satisfied, that does not mean they will buy from a retailer again.   




That might be a bigger problem in the telecom business, which virtually always ranks as among the industries with the lowest customer satisfaction scores. If it is true that the link between reported satisfaction and repeat buying is weak, what is the value of satisfaction scores in an industry that almost always is ranked quite low in satisfaction?

Internet service providers, for example, rank dead last among industries, alongside subscription TV services, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

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