Independent online comparison service moneyland.ch regularly gauges satisfaction among Swiss mobile service customers via representative online surveys of 1500 residents across the country.
The Swiss Mobile Customer Satisfaction Survey 2021 rates customer satisfaction with Swiss mobile service providers based on these factors: value for money; friendliness; helpfulness; availability; network quality; network coverage; mobile data; roaming; customer service; information provided; billing; call quality; notice periods; promotional offers; and overall satisfaction. Survey participants rated each criterion on a scale of 1 to 10, with the lowest note of 1 indicating complete dissatisfaction, and the highest note of 10 indicating complete satisfaction.
The results: “Swiss consumers are generally satisfied with their mobile plans and prepaid mobile services,” says moneyland.ch telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. On average, Swiss mobile users rate their mobile service provider 7.6 out of 10 points, a “good” rating. Customer satisfaction increased slightly compared to the previous year. But there are differences in customer satisfaction with different mobile service providers.
Highest customer satisfaction
Participants are most satisfied with call quality (8.1 out of 10 points), followed by billing (8 points), mobile data, network coverage and network quality (7.9 points each), as well as friendliness of employees (7.8 points). These are followed by the helpfulness of employees and the clarity of information provided (7.4 points each), and customer service (7.3 points).
You can find an overview of customer satisfaction with each aspect of service here. You can find customer satisfaction rating per service provider here and in the mobile plan comparison.
Lowest customer satisfaction
Swiss mobile users are least satisfied with mobile roaming outside of Switzerland – a pattern already revealed by last year’s survey. On average, mobile users rate their mobile service providers’ roaming services with a low 6.3 out of 10 points. Other factors which received relatively poor ratings are promotional offers (6.6 points), notice periods (7 points), value for money, and availability (7.2 points each).
“This year again, mobile users have given their service providers poor ratings for mobile roaming and notice periods. From a customer standpoint, it’s surprising that mobile service providers are not doing anything to improve in these areas,” states Ralf Beyeler. “Roaming is still expensive and many service providers have raised their mobile roaming fees over recent months. Plans with long contract terms have long been a bone of discontentment,” says Beyeler.
Customers gave particularly low ratings for the notice periods of Swisscom (6.7 points) and Salt (6.3 points). Both of these telecom service providers still offer plans with long minimum contract terms of 12 or 14 months. This sets them apart from most other service providers.
Coop Mobile and Wingo have the most satisfied customers
With average ratings of 8.3 out of 10 points, Coop Mobile and Wingo have the best customer satisfaction ratings. They are followed at a distance by Sunrise and UPC with 7.8 points each. These in turn are followed by M-Budget Mobile (7.7 points), Yallo (7.6 points), Swisscom (7.5 points) and Salt (7.1 points). All ratings are clearly shown and broken down for each mobile service provider in the Swiss mobile plan and prepaid mobile comparison.
Mobile users in French-speaking Switzerland are less satisfied
There are no major differences in customer satisfaction between women and men, nor between urban and rural residents. However, mobile users in French-speaking Switzerland are notably less satisfied than those in German-speaking Switzerland.
The younger the mobile user, the lower the customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction increases with age. Adults between the ages of 50 and 74 rate their mobile service providers 7.8 out of 10 points. The average rating from adults aged 26 to 49 years old is lower at 7.5 points. The average rating from adults in the youngest age group (18 to 25 years old) is just 7.1 points.
Mobile Internet – a factor which is arguably more important for young adults – received a 7.5-point rating from the young adult age group. The same factor received a 7.9-point rating from adults aged 26 to 49 and an 8.1 rating from adults aged 50 to 74 years old.
Satisfaction with mobile data
Today, mobile data is likely the most important criterion for Swiss mobile users. There are notable differences in customer satisfaction with mobile data between different telecom service providers. Coop Mobile customers are the most satisfied in this regard, with Coop Mobile’s mobile data services getting a rating of 8.6 out of 10 points. Wingo (8.4 points) and UPC (8.2 points) take second and third place. All three of these mobile service providers use Swisscom’s mobile network.
The worst notes for mobile data go to Salt (7.6 points) and M-Budget (7.7 points). Sunrise (8 points) and Swisscom (7.9 points) take the midfield.
Major dissatisfaction with special promotions
Some Swiss mobile service providers run numerous special promotions and heavily advertise these promotions. Other service providers are more conservative with regards to promotions. On average, Swiss mobile users are not satisfied with the special promotional offers, rating these with just 6.6 out of 10 points. That is the second-worst rating after mobile roaming.
Differences between the different service providers are major in this regard. The best ratings for promotions go to Wingo (8.3 out of 10 points) and Yallo (8 out of 10 points). Both of these service providers regularly run special offers without binding contract terms, and make these available to existing customers as well.
The worst ratings for promotions go to Swisscom, with just 5.8 out of 10 points. This likely has to do with the fact that Swiss runs special promotions much less often than many other mobile service providers, and those it does run are only available to new customers. Swisscom customers are also tied into contracts for longer contract terms. The costs of Swisscom plans are relatively high even with the discounts offered with special promotions.
Customers least satisfied with mobile roaming
Residents rate the mobile roaming services provided much lower than other factors. The average rating is just 6.3 out of 10 points. The best ratings for mobile roaming go to Coop Mobile (7.2 points), Wingo (7.2 points), and UPC (7.1 points). The lowest ratings go to M-Budget Mobile (5.4 points), Swisscom (6.2 points) and Sunrise (6.5 points).
“Mobile service providers have to finally improve their roaming offers,” demands moneyland.ch expert Ralf Beyeler. “The results of this survey show once again that customers are unsatisfied with roaming services,” adds Ralf Beyeler.
Telecom service providers are finally coming under pressure, believes Beyeler. “The cash-cow practices of charging hugely inflated standard roaming rates must finally end. Providers should also offer more flexible plans. Plans with included roaming allowances are good, but they are not ideal for many customers. Many mobile users do not travel abroad every month. Service providers would do better to offer plans which charge fair prices for roaming whenever plan holders make use of it.
Still, at least one longstanding source of discontentment with roaming will be done away with in mid-2021. Swiss law will require that data roaming bundles remain valid for at least 12 months before expiring.
Swisscom customer satisfaction
Swiss market leader Swisscom received a weighted average customer satisfaction rating of 7.5 out of 10 points. That is a slight improvement over last year’s rating. It is interesting to see that Coop Mobile and Wingo – both of which run on the Swisscom network – received significantly higher customer satisfaction ratings than Swisscom.
The highest ratings from Swisscom customers went to call quality and network coverage with 8.2 out of 10 points, followed by billing with 8 points. The lowest ratings received by Swisscom are for special promotions (5.8 points), value for money, and mobile roaming (6.2 points each).
It is remarkable that Swisscom received the second-lowest customer satisfaction ratings in this year’s survey. That is a warning sign for the former monopolist which is largely owned by the state, concludes Ralf Beyeler from moneyland.ch.
Sunrise customer satisfaction
Switzerland’s second-largest mobile service provider Sunrise maintained a mediocre rating in 2021, hovering just above Swisscom with an average customer satisfaction rating of 7.8 out of 10 points. Sunrise customers are most satisfied with billing (8.3 points), call quality (8.2 points), and the friendliness of employees (8 points). They are least satisfied with mobile roaming (6.5 points).
Salt customer satisfaction
The third-largest Swiss mobile service provider Salt received a relatively low average customer satisfaction rating of 7.1 points. Salt customers are most satisfied with billing (7.7 points) and mobile Internet (7.6 points). They are least satisfied with mobile roaming (5.9 points).
UPC customer satisfaction
UPC received a weighted average customer satisfaction rating of 7.8 out of 10 points. UPC customers are most satisfied with mobile data (8.2 points), network coverage, and call quality (8.1 points each). They are least satisfied with special promotions (6.8 points).
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