For the best phone plan, 2degrees is the first-class option

Wallet … keys … phone! It’s a mental checklist most of us tick off whenever we leave our homes. Finding yourself out and about without your mobile is like being a modern-day Robinson Crusoe – cut adrift from instant access to family, friends and the internet.

A smartphone is central to the modern lifestyle – it’s how we keep informed, keep in touch and order so much of our lives … from our finances to our takeaway meals! If we’re not peering into a sleek glass screen, we’re smiling into a camera for a selfie!

While choosing the right phone to meet your budget and tech needs is important, so too is signing up for the right plan to deliver your data, calls and texts.

So as part of our mission to inform NZ consumers of the best mobile phone plan providers on the market, Canstar Blue canvassed the opinions of 2297 New Zealanders who had a mobile phone plan, across a range of categories, to measure and track their satisfaction.

To decide which phone plan provider offers the best level of customer satisfaction, each was rated across the following categories:

• Overall Satisfaction
• Accessibility of Provider
• Assistance Managing Data
• Billing
• Customer Service
• Network Coverage
• Value for Money

Coming out on top for the sixth consecutive year, the winner of Canstar Blue’s award for Most Satisfied Customers | Mobile Plans is 2degrees. Winning Five Stars for Overall Satisfaction, 2degrees also won Five Stars in every other category, except for Network Coverage, for which it won a healthy Four Stars.

Also rating well, Spark earned Four Stars in every category, except Network Coverage, for which it won Five Stars.

What Customers Want

Of all the drivers of satisfaction in our survey, Value for Money came out on top, with 31% of respondents ranking it as the most important factor. Interestingly, Customer Service (22%) beat Accessibility of Provider (15%) and Network Coverage (15%), which just highlights the importance of being able to talk to knowledgeable and helpful staff when you encounter a problem with your tech. Overall, the main drivers of satisfaction are:

Our Phone Habits, Revealed

Back in the day, one of the great things about having a mobile phone plan was that you could regularly update to a new phone. But now phones cost a lot extra on top of a plan, it seems that most of us choose to own our phones outright: 60% of respondents in our survey are on a plan only, and use their own phones.

We are also upgrading less often. Given the expense of new models, and that their tech upgrades are becoming less pronounced, it’s no wonder we’re holding onto our phones for longer: only 11% of respondents say they update their smartphone regularly.

Underlying our survey is the fact that people are still using phones for the purpose they were originally intended, keeping in touch with people – it’s how we’re keeping in touch that’s changing: 62% of those in our survey say that they use apps such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp to communicate over traditional voice calls and texting.

Oh, yes, and going back to idea of Robinson Crusoe naked on his desert island, nearly half (45%) of respondents feel nude without their phone!

Whether you’re after a SIM-only deal, or want a plan with a phone; prefer to app and tap a keyboard or would rather hear somebody’s voice, if you’re after the best mobile phone deal, then let Canstar Blue’s research help put you in touch with the right mobile plan provider … 2degrees!