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Business Customers Rate Seattle City Light Highest in Satisfaction

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Business customers rated Seattle City Light highest in customer satisfaction among midsize western utilities in the latest J.D. Power and Associates survey results, which were released today.

“Everything we do at Seattle City Light starts with our customer-owners,” General Manager and CEO Jorge Carrasco said. “It’s our goal to provide them the best customer experience of any utility in the country. We’re proud of the J.D. Power results, which show us where we are succeeding and point to opportunities where we can do even better.”

This is the second time in the past three years that City Light was the top rated utility in the highly competitive western region by business customers.

J.D. Power surveys customers with questions about power quality and reliability, billing and payment, corporate citizenship, price, communications and customer service. City Light was rated highest or second highest in every category within the western region.

City Light received a total score of 716. The average for western midsize utilities was 691 and the overall national average was 677. Among all utilities nationwide, regardless of size, only eight achieved a higher score than City Light.

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to about 750,000 Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

Residential Customers Rate Seattle City Light Among the Best Utilities

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Satisfaction improved over the past year among Seattle City Light’s residential customers, who rated City Light as one of the best midsize utilities in the West, according to J. D. Power and Associates. 

“Providing excellent customer service is the goal of everything we do at Seattle City Light,” General

Manager Jorge Carrasco said. “Each of our 1,800 employees contributes to these improvements and we’ll never stop working to make our customers’ experience even better.”

In J.D. Power’s 2014 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, City Light’s overall satisfaction score rose 10 points from 676 to 686, ranking third among western midsize utilities. Only Clark Public Utilities at 720 points and Colorado Springs Utilities in Colorado at 689 points were rated higher.

Nationally, City Light ranked 18th out of 138 utilities studied. 

The study, now in its 16th 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.

Some examples of the service considerations customers are asked to rate are “actions to take care of environment,” “avoid lengthy outages” and “ease of navigating their utility’s website.”

Among the study’s highlights:

  • Seattle City Light was rated highest for the total monthly cost of service, which reflects the low cost of City Light’s electricity and utility conservation programs that help customers use less energy.
  • Increasing customer satisfaction with utility communications accounted for 2.9 points of the higher score.
  • And corporate citizenship saw a similar improvement at 2.5 points.

Initiatives to improve customer service even more are already underway as part of City Light’s recently approved Strategic Plan update. The six-year plan calls for website enhancements, customer service center upgrades, advanced metering and continuation of a program to replace older underground power lines to increase reliability of service.

 In 2013, City Light was rated highest in customer satisfaction among western midsize utilities by business customers.

Customers Rank City Light Among the Best US Utilities

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Seattle City Light received its highest rankings ever in the recently released J.D. Power and Associates residential customer satisfaction survey. City Light moved to second in the western midsize utility segment.  It was ranked sixth in 2011 results.  The utility also jumped to 12th nationally, moving from the 25th spot in 2011.

“Fundamental to the work we do is our commitment to provide the best customer service experience of any utility in the nation,” City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said. “Our customers are telling us they like the changes we are making, and all of us at the utility are working hard to improve our performance even more.”

City Light’s customer satisfaction score rose 10 points compared to 2011 while the larger trend for utilities across the country was an industry-wide decline in satisfaction. City Light enjoyed similar improvements in its business customer satisfaction survey released earlier this year, moving into the 10th spot nationally. 

Among the areas customers cited for City Light’s improvement were customer service, communicating with customers about power outages and corporate citizenship.

“The more information electric utilities proactively provide during an outage, the higher customer satisfaction will likely be,” said Chris Oberle, senior director of the energy and utility practice at J.D. Power. “Customers value being kept up to date and want to resume their lives as quickly as possible. Notifying them in a proactive manner ensures that they know the latest information and are kept apprised of their unique situation.”

City Light added an online outage map, mobile-enabled web pages, developed a social media presence and introduced a customer call-back feature during the past three years to enhance customer communications and service. The utility also is proud of its employee volunteer efforts.  Employees are proud of the work they do for customers and look for even more opportunities to give back to the community during off-hours.

The J.D. Power study measures customer satisfaction with 126 electric utility companies by examining six factors: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; communications; and customer service.  A total of 1,000 points are possible. City Light scored 674. The industry average was 625.

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States.  It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents.  City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

Seattle City Light Among the Best Utilities in Social Media

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Seattle City Light is one of the best utilities at interacting with customers through social media, according to a recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates.

According to the customer satisfaction survey, City Light tied with ConEd, Entergy Texas, Cleco Power, Santee Cooper, and Tucson Electric Power for highest social media recall by customers.

These utilities have been the best at venturing into social media communications with their customers, said Chris Oberle, Senior Director in Energy Practice for J.D. Power. “And here’s the thing about social media, they tend to be the most satisfied customers because it’s a way for customers to feel more interactive and personal without calling or being on site.”

Seattle City Light publishes this Power Lines blog and supports a Twitter account — @SEACityLight — where customers can get tips for saving money, check on power outages, learn about new utility programs, and more. Recently, the utility launched its first online video contest, Slay an Energy Vampire, which you can check out – or better yet enter – here.

“We are committed to providing the best customer service experience of any utility in the nation,” Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said. “We need to be relevant and to ensure we communicate with our customers in a way that they want to hear from us.  Social media is one more way that we engage customers in order to meet that goal.”

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States.  It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents.  City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

Seattle City Light Customers Appreciate Stewardship, Conservation

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Seattle City Light customers value the utility’s environmental stewardship and energy conservation efforts, according to the latest customer satisfaction study by J.D. Power and Associates, which ranked City Light among the nation’s best utilities.

Overall, City Light scored 646 points for customer satisfaction with power quality and reliability, price, billing and payment, corporate citizenship, communications and customer service in the survey, which was released July 30.

That represents a 5 point gain since 2008, moving City Light into the top 25 percent of the 121 utilities reviewed, which Chris Oberle, J.D. Power’s senior director of energy practice, called “the nation’s elite in terms of serving their residential customers.”

“I am proud of the work our employees are doing every day to improve our service and provide the best customer service experience of any utility in the country,” Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said. “Their efforts make a difference that our customers recognize.”

Among the drivers for City Light’s high scores was customer recognition of the utility’s environmental stewardship efforts, such as operating as the only greenhouse gas-neutral utility in the country, flow management to protect salmon runs and projects to preserve and restore habitat for endangered species. Another factor was recognition of City Light’s efforts to help customers reduce their electricity use. The utility has started a five-year effort to double community energy conservation.

“We also pay close attention to what our customers are telling us needs to get better, such as outage information, billing and how they can get even more information about controlling their energy costs,” Carrasco said. “Last year’s survey results and our own research helped move us to electronic billing, which launched in January. We are committed to constantly looking for opportunities to improve.”

One example of that effort can be seen in the outage management system City Light is installing. The system is scheduled to be in place for the 2010 storm season. With this tool, the utility will be able to identify outage locations faster, provide better estimates for when service will be restored and improve customer follow-up.

Seattle City Light is the ninth largest public electric utility in the United States.  It has the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents.  City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, Web intelligence and customer satisfaction.  The company’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually.