2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Last updated on Monday March 6, 2017 7:28 AM

2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Both Touchstone Energy and the national samples have consistently out-paced the utility average by a significant margin and have compared favorably to the top rated investor-owned utility in the nation.

The utility industry average has shown improvement from the low 70's in 2005 to the mid 70's in 2012. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), this improvement in the investor-owned utility sector is being driven primarily by utilities providing natural gas service, either exclusively or in combination with electricity. The historically low cost of natural gas has most likely fueled this trend.

Six out of the top ten energy utilities monitored by the ACSI in the 3'd Quarter 2012 provided natural gas service. Atmos Energy, a gas-only investor-owned utility serving customers across 12 southeastern states, took the top spot with an ACSI score of 86.

As we have found in prior research efforts, satisfaction levels vary significantly by the age of the respondent. In the chart below, we show the overall ACSI index for five age groups from the national sample. (Note: the horizontal bars above and below the mean score show statistical precision at a 95% confidence level. )

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KEY ATTRIBUTE PERFORMANCE

Cooperatives receive high marks in core operational areas such as reliability, outage restoration and handling problems. However, ratings on service and image attributes unique to electric cooperatives show significant opportunity for improvement.

While satisfaction scores provided by the ACSI give us a robust measure of our overall position among service industries, it is also important we understand how our members perceive our performance across a range of service and image related attributes specific to the electric cooperative industry. This deeper exploration allows us to determine the unique elements of our service which most influence member engagement with the cooperative and provides a road map to improved ACSI scores.

Members were asked whether they agree their cooperative delivers on core competencies as well as elements related to our image and reputation. Agreement ratings for these attributes are shown on a ten point scale. A rating of ten indicates members 'agree strongly' with the statement. A rating of one indicates members 'disagree strongly.'