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Big test of shops: Top rankings for Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Austria

The German trade journal connect has conducted a major test of shops of mobile network operators in Germany and Austria. The criteria applied by the test, which covered shops in numerous cities, included the quality of the advising offered, the friendliness of service staff and shops' equipment and layouts. With excellent test results in Germany, Deutsche Telekom placed first, and it was the only mobile network operator to receive an overall assessment of "good." T-Mobile Austria achieved a second-place ranking in Austria.

In its evaluation explaining why Deutsche Telekom was awarded the top ranking in Germany, connect noted "its sales staff not only are courteous, attentive and friendly, they also provided the best advising on rate plans during the test, had the best knowledge of the hardware and were completely up to date on the company's services." The good service encountered in the shops was no one-shop fluke. Deutsche Telekom's shop staff provide top-quality advising throughout Germany – i.e. regardless of whether the shop is in Lübeck, Munich, Dresden or Cologne. For their publication's major test, connect representatives visited a total of 24 Deutsche Telekom shops. Of that group, nine received a grade of "excellent," and ten were graded "good." One can thus safely conclude that anyone who is looking for individualized advising, focusing on his or her own specific requirements, and who also wants to hear about the very newest products and standards, should thus go straight to Deutsche Telekom.

connect: "Salespersons with a Deutsche Telekom gene"
Niek Jan van Damme, Board member responsible for Telekom Deutschland, is delighted with the company's outstanding result – especially since it means a return to first place, after last year's much weaker connect test result. Significantly, other tests and surveys conducted in Germany have reached essentially the same conclusions. Just a few weeks ago, Focus, a German weekly news magazine, reported that Deutsche Telekom had placed first in its test of online customer service. TÜV Rheinland, a leading, independent international provider of technical services, including certification, has awarded Deutsche Telekom's customer service a quality mark of "good." "Our repeat excellent result shows that good service is basically "hard-wired into our DNA." I am proud of all our staff who work so hard for our customers, with their hearts and their minds, day in and day out, and thus provide such great service," van Damme added. And connect magazine confirmed that "The great majority of the service staff believe in the quality of the company products they are selling and are able to communicate their enthusiasm to customers." The magazine even spoke of "salespersons with a Deutsche Telekom gene."

Second place for T-Mobile in Austria
Deutsche Telekom also placed well in Germany's neighbor Austria, where the Deutsche Telekom Group is represented by its mobile communications subsidiary T-Mobile Austria. T-Mobile Austria was awarded a second place, and an overall mark of "good." The Group's shop staff also impressed with good-quality advising in Austria. "In their discussions with customers, most of the salespersons comprehensively analyzed the customer's requirements both initially and then later on. They repeatedly considered the customer's questions and took the time to explain the smartphones' many functions and features to our testers," connect reported.

How connect's test worked
For its May issue, connect tested mobile network operators' shops in 24 cities in Germany and in 20 cities in Austria. All of the shops were visited two times. On their first visit to a store, the connect testers pretended they were "normal" smartphone users. On their second, they described themselves as "very infrequent users." The quality of salespersons' advising was assessed in light of available rates, services and devices. Other criteria that entered into the overall grades included the salespersons' manner and appearance, and the shops' equipment and atmosphere.

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