DECEMBER 30 - Struggling Charter Communications scored the lowest among 114 companies across a dozen industries in an annual customer experience survey of more than 4,500 consumers by Forrester Research. The global research giant said in a paper detailing the results of the study conducted online during the fourth quarter that it asked the consumers about usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyability of their experiences with the companies. Based on the responses, Forrester calculated a "Customer Experience Index" on a 1-100 scale for each company. Barnes & Noble (92) and USAA (91) topped the rankings, while Charter, which was in the bottom 10 last year, placed 111th for its TV service with a score of 40 and 114th for its Internet service at 32. In between were Blue Shield of California at 39 and Medicaid at 38.
Charter's Internet service had the second largest drop in score, falling from 48 last year. Charter performed the worst in "enjoyability," scoring at the bottom two spots with 20 for TV and 16 for Internet. Just 11 percent of the companies received "excellent" ratings, with 38 percent "poor" or "very poor."
The industries covered in the study were airlines, banks, cell phone service providers, credit card providers, hotels, insurance firms, Internet service providers, investment firms, medical insurance companies, computer manufacturers, retailers and TV service providers. Retailers took seven of the top 10 spots, down from nine out of 10 last year, while the bottom 10 came from healthcare, TV service, Internet service and wireless service. Retailers had an average score of 81 and hotels 79, while TV service providers averaged 52 and health insurance plans 51. Banks, many of which have been decimated by the global credit crisis and economic turmoil, improved the most from last year, while Time Warner Cable, Charter, and Blue Shield of California had the largest decline. St. Louis-based Charter, which is the dominant subscription TV provider in the Madison area, issued a statement in response to the Forrester study.
"For us, making the customer's experience with us a quality one is a goal that is articulated every day to our agents and technicians and something that we work at and train for relentlessly," Charter spokeswoman Anita Lamont said in an e-mail to The Capital Times. "We continue to take steps that, according to our own surveys, show that customers are benefiting from actions taken, including a significant improvements in our Care operation over the past couple of years. "We recognize that it takes time for improvements to resonate with customers and are committed to continuously refining and bettering the process. We believe that that by doing what it takes to care of our customers, Charter will positively affect our customers' experience with us and over time, the change will be reflected in their perception of us. We're not where we strive to be and our goal is to earn the respect and confidence of our customers through our actions."
Charter is fighting to stave off bankruptcy in the face of a massive debt load of more than $20 billion. On Monday, the St. Louis Business Journal reported that Citigroup analyst David Hamburger put out a note saying the likelihood of financial distress at Charter in the next year has increased from 20 percent to 75 percent. Hamburger also downgraded Charter from buy to sell and reduced his price target for the company's stock from $1 to 5 cents. Charter's stock fell 3 cents per share to close at 9 cents Monday. "In the current credit environment, planned negotiations with a diffuse set of bondholders with varied interests might not be successful given the company's significant liquidity needs and need to refinance 2010 maturities," Hamburger wrote, the St. Louis Business Journal reported. Charter's stock has traded below $1 a share for more than a month, which normally would have it facing delisting by NASDAQ, but the stock exchange has temporarily waived its rules because of current volatility in the markets.
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