News Coverage of Verizon Strike and Service Issues Sinks Perception to Three Year Low

Ted MarzilliCEO YouGov Direct
April 27, 2016, 7:13 PM GMT+0

In the two weeks since 36,000 Verizon workers went on strike, the consumer perception levels of both Verizon Wireless and Verizon FiOS have dropped to three-year lows.

Even though most of the striking workers handle the landline phone and FiOS businesses, it appears that sharing the same corporate name has hurt both brands nevertheless.

Three years ago, Verizon Wireless took what may have been its biggest perception drop ever when the news broke that the company handed over millions of customer phone records to the National Security Agency.

YouGov BrandIndex measured Verizon Wireless and Verizon FiOS its Buzz score, which asks respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" For both metrics, a score can range from 100 to -100 with a zero score equaling a neutral position.

Verizon Wireless’ Buzz score was 18 on April 13th, the day the workers went on strike, and it is now half of that at 9. The previous low score, when the NSA news hit, was 1. Verizon FiOS, which normally tracks in a lower range than Verizon Wireless, fell from a Buzz score of 7 to 2 in the same time frame.