Customer Satisfaction Starts with Reliable Service
Survey insights reveal outage tolerance and the crucial role of reliable utility service.
Challenge
A Midwest utility sought to understand customer priorities regarding service aspects such as affordability, reliability, and sustainability. The aim was to assess how these priorities affect customer satisfaction and identify acceptable outage levels
Solution
An online survey was fielded on an on-going basis to residential and commercial customers to allow for feedback on outage experiences and satisfaction levels.
Results
Reliability as a Top Priority
Nearly half of the residential respondents ranked reliability as their top priority. Customers emphasized the critical nature of electricity and gas as basic necessities, essential for household health and safety. Concerns about climate change and its impact on service reliability further underscored this preference.
Impact on Satisfaction
The annual tracking study revealed a link between service reliability and customer satisfaction. As the number of outages lasting 5 minutes or more increased, satisfaction dropped. Notably, satisfaction declined by 17 percentage points when outages increased from two to three, highlighting the critical importance of maintaining reliable service.
Tolerance for Outages
Both residential and commercial customers indicated that up to two outages of more than 5 minutes per year are acceptable. Beyond this threshold, there would be anticipated negative effects on satisfaction, again demonstrating the need for utilities to focus on minimizing outages.
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—Tiffany/Market Researcher, Utilities
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