Household Service Emergencies are More Stressful than Last-Minute Holiday Shopping for Nearly Three Quarters of Americans

Twenty-five percent of Americans surveyed say an unexpected service problem such as a frozen pipe or an electrical outage would be their top holiday season stressor.

ATLANTA – Dec. 11, 2018 – Servicing an unexpected leaky pipe, faulty furnace or cable outage is the most stressful item on Americans’ holiday to-do lists--more so than getting holiday shopping done--for nearly three in four (73 percent) according to a national survey released today from Verizon Connect. Additionally, 40 percent of Americans expect to make more service calls during this holiday season than any other time of the year.

The biggest concern for more than one in four Americans (27 percent) is needing a plumber to fix frozen pipes during the holidays, which is especially true for Americans in the Midwest (30 percent). TV is also top of mind for many Americans during the holidays who say that needing a technician to fix their cable would be their top concern (15 percent). In addition to emergency repairs, 90 percent of Americans rely on key home services during the holidays with heating ventilation and air conditioning being relied on the most (28 percent) followed closely by trash removal (27 percent).

Americans expect more from service providers at the holidays

More than half of Americans (53 percent) expect their service provider to be available during the holidays with at least regular business hours, if not extended hours, in order to be ready for holiday home service emergencies. Additionally, consumers are looking for their service providers to be cost effective and fast. For 67 percent of respondents, cost was among their top considerations for hiring a service provider and more than one in four (26 percent) said that the time a service provider takes to arrive or the amount of time it takes them to finish a job was most important. In fact, the majority of Americans (76 percent) said they have higher expectations for a service provider making repairs during a holiday party than a driver delivering food for a holiday party.

"Common home issues such as frozen pipes, out-of-commission furnaces and broken garbage disposals typically have people scrambling, especially around the holidays,” said Jay Jaffin, chief marketing officer at Verizon Connect. “With many Americans hosting family gatherings, expectations are extraordinarily high for service providers, making efficient, quality service supported by technology including route optimization and service vehicle tracking more important than ever.”

Verizon Connect offers a full suite of fleet and mobile workforce management solutions, serving commercial customers of any size.

Methodology
The Verizon Connect Holiday Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,000 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, between November 5 and November 8, 2018, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas have been set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the U.S. adult population 18 and older. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

The Verizon Connect survey defines “service providers” as independent contractors or companies with a fleet of vehicles that provide maintenance or repair services; including plumbers, electricians, heating and cooling technicians, landscapers and carpenters. The survey looked at U.S. adults to reveal their biggest fears around needing service providers this holiday season as well as their expectations when they do hire them.

About Verizon Connect
Verizon Connect is guiding a connected world on the go by automating, optimizing and revolutionizing the way people, vehicles and things move through the world. Our full suite of industry-defining solutions and services put innovation, automation and connected data to work for customers and help them be safer, more efficient and more productive. With more than 3,500 dedicated employees in 15 countries, we deliver leading mobile technology platforms and solutions. For more on Verizon Connect, visit www.verizonconnect.com.