Statistically Speaking

Sixty-one percent of respondents to an Accenture study of roughly 1,000 consumers revealed the Internet makes it easier to change service providers because it gives them access to information about companies. Meanwhile, 68 percent said they would tell family and friends about their negative experiences with those companies, while the same percentage said they would switch to a competing company following a bad experience.

Connecting the field and the office is a top strategic priority for 88 percent of best-in-class firms, according to "The Mobile Field Service Solution Selection Report" from Aberdeen Group. Companies that have deployed mobile field service solutions have seen an average 27 percent improvement in worker productivity, a 19 percent increase in customer satisfaction, a 17 percent increase in overall profitability, and a 13 percent increase in service revenues, according to the report.

The Internet services sector received the highest Customer Respect Index (CRI) score, 7.0, in the report "Q1 2006 Online Customer Respect Study of the High-Tech and Computer Industry," by The Customer Respect Group. Ebay led the space with a CRI score of 8.4. The CRI rating is based on a 10-point scale of about 2,000 corporate Web sites across various industries.

"The Forrester Wave: Consumer ISPs, Q4 2005," contends that the overall Internet access market grew from 59 million households in 2000 to 72 million at the end of 2004, a 22 percent increase, and is expected to reach 90 million households by 2010. In that same time frame, Forrester predicts that the percentage of households with broadband access will grow from 43 percent to 79 percent.

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