DALLAS, July 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T* earned the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Business Wireline Satisfaction award for Large Enterprise business for the second year in a row.

This recognition demonstrates our dedicated focus on continually improving customer service throughout the operational lifecycle and progress through our vertically-focused account, service and marketing teams.

AT&T scored 11 points higher than the nearest competitor in the Large Enterprise segment, scoring highest in all 6 of the J.D. Power factors.

Additionally, in the Small Medium Business segment, AT&T achieved the highest score in 4 out of 6 factors.

"Our customers are our number one priority. Everything we do starts and ends with them," said Sorabh Saxena, president, Global Operations & Services, AT&T Business. "We're committed to delivering the personal service our customers expect combined with cutting-edge platforms that anticipate customer needs through artificial intelligence and automation technologies."

Leading with Listening Customers expect speed, simplicity and proactive care. That's why it's important to lead with listening to customers. We survey our customers, invite them to advisory councils and meet face-to-face to truly understand their needs. Through these actions, we gain greater insight to our customer demands. As we continue to drive end-to-end operational excellence throughout our business, we're keeping our customers at the center of every action.

We've been on a continuous multiyear transformation journey that has four key pillars - people, process, technology and culture to deliver excellent customer service. We've delivered leading edge capabilities to sales delivery and service teams to enhance first call resolution and customer service.

AI is Key to Improving Customer Service Creating communications solutions for large enterprise customers is a complex process. They can take months and, in some cases, years to plan and deploy. All of this complexity makes it impossible to deliver effortless customer experiences through manual approaches alone.

AT&T is using AI and machine learning to anticipate customer needs – identifying issues before the customer tells us. Machine learning monitors the status of projects. If something is taking longer than expected, AT&T Business teams can be alerted automatically. They can then take corrective actions and communicate with the customer – keeping customer effort to a minimum and driving up satisfaction.

One successful example where AI vastly improved the customer experience is our Fiber Fast initiative that uses network business intelligence to accelerate delivery intervals at the point of sale. This effort includes cross functional collaboration across multiple organizations to provide service delivery dates to customers in days instead of weeks or months.

5G and Vertical Focus Our strategy to focus on vertical industries has directly impacted customer satisfaction. We've turned our account, service and marketing teams into trusted advisors in key verticals - Manufacturing, Healthcare, Finance, Retail and Public Sector. As a result, we're leaders in deploying 5G and edge compute technology into hospitals, manufacturing plants, sports venues and in the entertainment industry.

"AT&T continues to deliver the future first - making the complex simple for our vast and varied customer base," said Saxena.

*About AT&T CommunicationsWe help family, friends and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to mobile video streaming, we innovate to improve lives. We have the nation's fastest wireless network.** And according to America's biggest test, we have the nation's best wireless network.*** We're building FirstNet just for first responders and creating next-generation mobile 5G. With DIRECTV, DIRECTV NOW and WatchTV, we deliver entertainment people love to talk about. Our smart, highly secure solutions serve nearly 3 million global businesses – nearly all of the Fortune 1000. And worldwide, our spirit of service drives employees to give back to their communities.

AT&T Communications is part of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). Learn more at att.com/CommunicationsNews.

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**Based on analysis by Ookla® of Speedtest Intelligence® data average download speeds for Q2 2019. ***GWS OneScore, September 2018.

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SOURCE AT&T Communications