Mobile networks are often ranked on the quality and availability of their data, call and text services, but now they’ve also been ranked for word of mouth momentum and social media engagement.
The new study was carried out by technology and data company Engagement Labs and the Keller Fay Group and found that Three’s word of mouth momentum was ahead of the competition.
In the past 12 months Three has increased its TalkShare (the percentage of conversation an individual brand has relative to word of mouth for all brands in the category), as well as over performing for TalkShare relative to its market share.
Better yet, 73 percent of that word of mouth was positive, which is a greater percentage than any other UK network managed.
That’s key, as positive word of mouth could really help drive sales, so while Three may be the smallest major UK network right now if it keeps this up it could be set to grow.
It also suggests that existing customers are largely happy with the network, or at least more so than they are with any of its rivals.
Three recently launched a campaign to make things right, aimed at fixing the wrongs of the mobile world, by doing things like removing roaming fees and providing unlimited data and given the positive word of mouth it’s receiving it seems likely that it’s achieving those goals. So if you’re looking for a new mobile network Three could be the best choice.
EE meanwhile came second for word of mouth momentum, which is no surprise given the large size of the network. Vodafone came third, but had the most mixed or negative responses of any network. That leaves O2 in last, but at least what word of mouth it got wasn’t as negative as Vodafone’s.
As strong as Three’s word of mouth performance was though it really needs to work at social media engagement, coming third on both Facebook and Twitter, suggesting that it’s not present enough and not engaging customers enough. To really leverage that strong word of mouth it needs to improve here.
O2, despite ranking poorly for word of mouth, was first on social media. EE performed strongly on Twitter, coming in second, but was last on Facebook, while Vodafone was second on Facebook and last on Twitter.
EE, despite its poor Facebook showing, at least has a huge active user base, but that’s all the more reason it should be working to engage them.
It’s Three and O2 though that both impress and have the most work to do, with Three needing to engage more with its customers online to keep the positive word of mouth up, while O2 needs to use its social media engagement to drive word of mouth.
