March 28, 2024

SMECO Leads the Pack in Customer Satisfaction

Posted by SMECO
Pax IIIJD power rankings SMECO

Despite ongoing severe weather across the U.S.  resulting in longer outage periods, customer satisfaction with residential electric utilities  increased substantially from 2012. The increased satisfaction is driven primarily by improvements in billing/payment, price, and outage communications, according to the J.D. Power 2013 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM.

The study, now in its 15th year, measures customer satisfaction with electric utility companies by examining six factors: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; communications; and customer service. Among midsize utilities in the East region, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative ranks highest for a sixth consecutive year.
Overall satisfaction among residential customers of electric utilities increased substantially in 2013. Performance in all six factors improved in 2013; billing and payment satisfaction showed the largest increase. Power quality and reliability was the second-highest-scoring factor. Communications satisfaction increased for a third consecutive year and satisfaction scores in price  and customer service are the highest in the four years.
With severe weather events across the United States, longer outages were reported in 2012; yet electric utilities have improved their outage communications before, during, and after these events. Satisfaction increases when utilities proactively communicate outage information regularly and clearly via the channels customers prefer, including utility-initiated phone calls, emails, text messages and social media sites.
“In addition to improving outage communication, electric utilities have made great strides in improving customer perceptions regarding billing and payment,” said Jeff Conklin, senior director of the energy practice at J.D. Power. “With such a dramatic increase in billing and payment satisfaction in the 2013 study, it’s clear that the electric utilities have listened to the voice of the customer by providing them with many choices to receive and pay their bill and with improved information on their billing statements.”
According to the study, satisfaction increases when customers are offered billing and payment options. With electronic billing options, due date selection options, and fixed budget bill payment plans available,along with bills featuring consumption graphs so that consumers know exactly what they’re paying for, satisfaction continues to rise. Consumers also have multiple payment options including online payments through the company or their own bank, auto-deductions, and recurring credit card payments. The percentage of customers who mail their payments has decreased to 26 percent in 2013 from 29 percent in 2012, indicating that customers are using alternative payment options.
Price satisfaction improves substantially for a second consecutive year (+12 points), as customers indicate lower average bill amounts, down $3 per month from 2012.
Power quality and reliability (PQ&R) increases by 15 points in 2013, driven by a 19-point increase in the West region. The study finds that utilities have increased their number of communications with customers regarding lengthy outages in 2013. The most satisfying sources of outage information are emails from the utility (762 PQ&R), text messages from the utility (736), utility’s social media site (724), calls from the utility (718), and customer emails sent to the utility (703).
Study Rankings
The Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study ranks midsize and large utility companies in four geographic regions: East, Midwest, South and West. Companies in the midsize utility segment serve between 125,000 and 499,999 residential customers, while companies in the large utility segment serve 500,000 or more residential customers.
SOURCE: JD Power
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