SMECO Ranked Highest in Customer Satisfaction

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative has been recognized in the J.D. Power 2015 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. The local electricity cooperative ranked highest in the study among midsize utilities for an eighth consecutive year with a score of 727 on a 1,000-point scale.
J.D. Power distributed a press release this month that said communication efforts and price satisfaction are the things that make customers most happy with their residential electric utility companies.
SMECO was high above the average score of 668.
“Utility companies are doing a better job at the fundamentals—minimizing service interruptions, communicating with customers and improving customer service,” said John Hazen, senior director of the energy practice at J.D. Power, in the press release. “Proactive communication during power outages remains a challenge, suggesting that utilities should focus on improving in this area.”
Satisfaction scores have gone up over the years, as communication efforts have increased. Power quality and reliability satisfaction among customers who receive proactive updates during an outage is significantly higher (777) than among those who do not receive such communications (683).
“The industry knows this is a key component of effective communication, but implementation is not happening fast enough,” said Hazen. “Many utility companies are moving in this direction, but the industry as a whole has been slow to institute proactive communications.”