Verizon CEO hopes drastic changes will win back angry customers

Verizon, one of the three major U.S. phone carriers, has had a tough 2025 as it continues to suffer from a troubling consumer trend that is hurting its business. Amid recent troubles, the company’s new CEO is doubling down on big changes to keep customers happy and reduce the risk of switching to rivals.

In its most current state earnings reportVerizon said it added 616,000 new postpaid phone customers in the fourth quarter of 2025; This was the highest number of new postpaid phone customers in the last six years.

However, the company saw postpaid phone churn reach 0.95% of customers abandoning the service; That’s 7 basis points higher than the loss it reported for the same quarter in 2024. operating income It decreased by 32.6% on an annual basis.

The mounting losses come after Verizon made several bold pricing changes early last year that sparked customer backlash.

For example, in February of last year, the company increased monthly rates for myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts by $3 to $5, citing “increased operational costs.”

The following month, Verizon increased the monthly price of its Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8. By August, Verizon device activation fee rose from $35 to $40, and the company ending loyalty discounts.

Later upgraded in September tablet plans Between $5 and $10 and I increased two important fees on customers’ monthly bills.

As customer backlash to these price increases grows and losses continue to mount, Verizon said: Dan Schulman He was appointed CEO in October, replacing Hans Vestberg.

Schulman said it loud and clear shortly after stepping into the role: earnings call he said that month that he was not a fan of the company’s price increases and vowed to “aggressively transform” the company to “build loyalty and deliver significant improvements in retention.”

He laid off 13,000 employees to “simplify” the company’s operations and “better address the complexity and friction” that frustrated customers, according to an internal memo later sent to workers.

As losses continue to mount, Schulman doubles down on the company’s transformation, claiming: Earnings call on January 30 He said Verizon “brought a customer-obsessed culture deep into the organization.”

“There is no doubt that Verizon is at a critical inflection point, and there is no question that we must fundamentally transform our culture to build a brand that embodies trust to delight our customers and serve our shareholders,” Schulman said.

Verizon Chief Financial Officer Anthony Skiadas said during the call that the company’s increased postpaid phone disruption in the fourth quarter was “largely driven by prior pricing actions and competition.”

Related: Verizon is cracking down on internet customers who violate the ground rule

Over the last three years, Verizon’s loss in this segment has increased by 25 basis points, resulting in a loss of 2.25 million customers, Schulman said.

“There are four reasons why people leave us,” Schulman said. “This is price increases without corresponding value. This just annoys some customers and as a result we have seen customer churn increase and we have stopped doing this and will start adding value to it.”

“The second is friction in the process, whether it’s hiring or billing,” he continued. “When they call our customer service, it needs to be seamless, and we need to reduce complexity, and we need to address that. We already have ongoing initiatives to address each of those. There’s also price perception and competitive intensity.”

Verizon is indeed facing increasing competition from rival phone carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, which are increasing their deals and perks to attract new customers. Cable giants such as Comcast and Spectrum are also attracting new phone customers with package phone, internet and TV service promotions.

To keep customers away from competitors, Verizon is investing heavily in artificial intelligence to help eliminate customer pain points and simplify its offerings.

“We are committed to being a company that prioritizes artificial intelligence. artificial intelligence “We will use AI to optimize our operations and fundamentally reshape the customer experience,” said Schulman. “We are leveraging it to simplify offers, enable personalized interactions, and reduce customer churn through smart, consistent marketing. By using predictive models, we can predict customer pain points before they happen, allowing us to proactively resolve issues.”

His comments come after Verizon began using artificial intelligence to improve customer service last summer. It is also reportedly using artificial intelligence to scan bills from rival phone carriers to offer customers customized deals.

In addition to AI, Verizon is also relying on convergence opportunities, such as offering customers phone and internet service bundles, to reduce customer churn. This comes after Verizon completed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications last month; It’s a move the phone carrier hopes will speed up the rollout of wireless and internet services to existing and new customers.

“The first and absolutely crucial to our combined future is the completion of our Frontier acquisition,” Schulman said. “We now have over 30 million fiber passes with a huge cross-selling opportunity as we have significantly underpenetrated our wireless services in Fronier markets.”

As Verizon doubles down on its return plan, the company predicts it will welcome 750,000 to 1 million postpaid phone customers this year.

To achieve this goal and retain customers, Schulman emphasized that the company must focus on rebuilding trust. But that doesn’t mean customers won’t see price increases in the future.

“The first thing is to stop doing things that customers hate,” Schulman said. “There’s no rocket science on this. Again, fix the end-to-end experience, it’s not rocket science, but it’s hard to do. And then you start to regain trust. And once you start to regain trust, you can start to either make promises or give it increased value.”

“I’m not saying we won’t increase prices, I’m saying we won’t increase prices without value,” he added. “But I think there are a lot of places where we can add value.”

Verizon’s increased focus on keeping its customers happy comes after it suffered a massive service outage last month that left millions of customers in multiple states without phone service for nearly 10 hours, sparking widespread outrage.

It is therefore vital that the company focuses on delighting customers, especially JD Power research Last year, it was revealed that Verizon was trailing T-Mobile and MVNOs in postpaid phone plan satisfaction.

• average consumer satisfaction score for postpaid plans under traditional carriers 593 (on a 1000-point scale).

• T-Mobile rankings highest in the segment with the highest satisfaction score 636.

• Verizon ranks second 583 Goal.

• AT&T the roads behind With Verizon satisfaction score 573.

• MVNOsbut they have average satisfaction score 641.
  Source: JD Power

“The findings show that value is the most important driver of the overall experience, followed closely by service quality,” said Carl Lepper, senior director of technology, media and telecom at J.D. Power. Press release.

After Verizon announced its latest earnings report, some analysts noted that focusing more on growing customer numbers could hurt its revenue in the future.

“Verizon Q4 (4th quarter 2025) results and guidance set the stage for Verizon to take a more aggressive stance on subscriber growth, which could come at the cost of some reduction in ARPU (average revenue per subscriber),” Citi analyst Michael Rollins said in a report reviewed by . Investor’s Business Diaries.

“As Verizon also invests to delight customers and increase customer retention, Q4 results reveal a rebound in subscriber growth and slower growth in services revenue of 1.1% year over year,” he continued.

Another concern among analysts is that Verizon could start a price war with rivals as it doubles down on attracting customers. One analyst noteNew Street Research analyst David Barden said Verizon is moving cautiously to prevent that from happening.

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“As we’ve said in the past, Verizon has the best house on the block, and they know the price war will destroy this neighborhood,” Barden said. “If they manage to capture ~200-300k postpaid phone subscriptions from AT&T and T-Mobile, that would not cause any meaningful harm to those companies, in our view, while also meeting Verizon’s short-term goal.”

Industry analyst Jeff Kagan said that although many analysts are predicting Verizon’s future performance under Schulman’s leadership: Press release He said the company’s most recent earnings report did not reflect how it will grow over the next few years.

“It’s been a while since Verizon showed strength, and investors are understandably eager to see improvement,” Kagan said.

“We need to give him (Schulman) the time and space he needs to gain momentum and get the ship moving in the right direction again,” he added.

Related: Verizon makes major policy change to slow down fleeing customers

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