AT&T Sampling and Data Plan

The cell phone industry is devastated by increasing competition and the declining economy. The customer service department in the cell phone industry is rising to levels that are leading AT&T’s management to evaluate options to promote sales during this tough economic time. The focus of AT&T to survive, continue to be competitive and make a profit. The recent histories of struggles they are encountering are mainly due to the poor customer service and low ratings of services. AT&T has had to develop and execute plans to improve their business to retain a strong company. AT&T’s management team has requested a research team using a survey as the main instrument to help understand the customer concerns and desires to prevent them from seeking service from another cell phone company.

The research conducted will provide management with some insight into the reasons customers will continue to utilize AT&T as their primary cell phone company of choice (AT&T, 2014). AT&T stretches back to the 1800’s, with Alexander Graham Bell as the founder. It values a happy workforce, believes in building strong customer relationships, and pursues innovation to ensure that customers continue to come back. In an industry with major competitors, the balance between management and employees is especially important. The company continues to break new ground with new features, services, and high quality products (AT&T, 2014). Problem

Customer service is something is lagging by comparison with the other cell phone companies. This is a concern for us to do research evaluate the data and do some statistical analysis and determine if there is a significant importance with the data taken and do something to change the way AT&T is dealing with its customer services. Sampling Methodology

On November 21, 2013, Today Money reported, “The primary data is based on survey data from more than 58,000 subscribers in 23 metro areas. The company ratings were on a variety of factors, including value, quality of voice, text and data, as well as customer service. For the big guys, Verizon had the highest overall score, 71 out of 100 points” (Today, 2013). The sampling method relies on reports of actual cell phone performance that is important to consumers. The design for the scale is to meet two basic criteria: 1) published company data, and 2) the information must be relevant to the consumer’s concerns. Data Analysis and Types

By surveying 65 cell phone companies, the opinion of what consumers would rate as important (on a scale of 0 to 10) in judging phone quality, provides the secondary data for this paper. To decide the customer’s perception of quality, the data is assigned a plus or minus sign to reflect the impact for that principle. Customer Service Rating (CSR) is comparable across cell phone industries; and across time, yearly rating results are examined both individually and collectively. According to the conducted research, the Chi-squared method and will conclude whether AT&T has increased or decreased its CSR over time compared to other cell phone companies. Results

H₀: = is no significant difference in AQR across SWA across time Ha:= there is a difference in AQR across SWA across time a = .05 t = chi-square corresponding to df = 6, a = .05 crv= 12.592
| fo| fe| fo-fe| (fo-fe)^2| (fo-fe)^2/fe|
2009| 1| 1.34| -0.34| 0| 0|
2008| 1.23| 1.34| -0.11| 0.0121| 0.00903|
2007| 1.59| 1.34| 0.25| 0.0625| 0.046642|
2006| 1.39| 1.34| 0.05| 0.0025| 0.001866|
2005| 1.06| 1.34| -0.28| 0.0784| 0.058507|
2004| 0.9| 1.34| -0.44| 0.1936| 0.144478|
2003| .89| 1.34| -0.45| 0.2025| 0.151119|
Total| 8.06| 1.34333| | | 0.411642|
Chi-squared = .411642
Since Chi-squared is .411642 < the CRV 12.592, reject the H₀. Conclude that there is no significant difference from 2003 to 2009. The ratings fluctuate a little bit over time but not enough to have a significant difference (Cooper, Donald & Schindler, 2006). Conclusion and Recommendation

In conclusion, with the problem of customer satisfaction declining, the statistical data proves that AT&T is still a profitable company. AT&T has consistently been successful in terms of growth, profit, and good employee relations. If you look at the numbers, AT&T is doing things right for the customers.

References
AT&T Newsroom (2014). AT&T company information. Retrieved from http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=5711 Cooper, Donald R., & Schindler, Pamela S. (2006). Business research methods (9th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Today Money. (2013). Which company offers the best cell-phone service? Retrieved from http://www.today.com/money/which-company-offers-best-cell-phone-service-2D11632717