The majority of electric and natural gas customers were satisfied with the way customer service representatives handled their calls in 2007, according to an annual report released this week by the Public Utility Commission.

The 2007 Customer Service Performance Report measures the customer-service performance of the state's major electric and natural gas companies. The report summarizes data from 2005, 2006 and 2007. It allows customers to see how well companies are responding to their questions and enables utilities to see how their level of service compares to other companies.

The full report is available online.

The data falls into two categories: company-reported performance information and customer survey results. The company-reported data measures telephone access to the companies, such as the percentage of calls that were abandoned by customers, calls answered within 30 seconds and received a busy signal. Calls in the "busy-out rate" represent those attempted calls that received a busy signal or message.

The report also measures how often companies failed to read meters, issue bills and promptly respond to customer disputes.

The customer surveys measure access to the company; employee courtesy and knowledge; promptness and timeliness of a response or visit; and satisfaction with the handling of the interaction. The utilities contracted with a common market research firm to conduct the surveys of their customers.

Company-reported highlights include:

· Access statistics improved for three electric distribution companies, but declined for three others. PPL Electric Co. reported an improvement in its percentage of calls answered within 30 seconds from 79 percent in 2006 to 83 percent in 2007. For the first time since 2003, Duquesne Light Co. dropped below 80 percent for calls answered within 30 seconds (83 percent in 2006 to 77 percent in 2007).

· Of the major EDCs, UGI Utilities Inc. showed the most significant improvement in access to its call centers in 2007. UGI also improved its call abandonment rate from 8 to 4 percent and improved its busy-out rate from 8 percent to 6 percent. However, UGI still shows the worst busy-out rate for the last three years for EDCs.

· Four of the natural gas distribution companies reported improved telephone access performance for 2007.

· Philadelphia Gas Works reported a significant increase (from 8 percent to 15 percent) in its call abandonment rate. PGW again reported the poorest telephone access performance among the major NGDCs. After showing steady improvement in the calls answered within 30 seconds (39 percent in 2004 to 52 percent in 2006), PGW reported a decline in 2007 to 42 percent.

· Only two EDCs and three NGDCs reported improved statistics regarding the number of residential disputes that did not receive a response within 30 days. Allegheny Power Co. decreased from 45 in 2006 to 18 in 2007 while PPL decreased from 297 in 2006 to 96 in 2007; Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania decreased from 109 in 2006 to 36 in 2007, Equitable Gas Co. decreased from 249 in 2006 to one in 2001 and PGW decreased from 596 in 2006 to 323 in 2007.One NGDC reported significantly higher numbers of disputes not responded to within 30 days/ Dominion Peoples reported an increase from 112 in 2006 to 2,229 in 2007.

· PGW again reduced the number of disputes not responded to within 30 days, dropping from 596 in 2006 to 323 in 2007.

Customer survey result highlights include:

· On average, 88 percent of EDC consumers reported they were either somewhat or very satisfied with the overall quality of service they received from their EDCs in 2007, slightly lower than the 90 percent in 2006.

· PGW and Dominion Peoples reported the worst access statistics. Survey findings show PGW and Dominion Peoples customers were the least satisfied with the ease of reaching their company.

· National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. is among the four NGDCs that reported answering more than 80 percent of calls within 30 seconds in 2007. 88 percent of NFG customers were either somewhat or very satisfied with the ease of reaching the company in 2007. On average, 81 percent of NGDC consumers reported they were either somewhat or very satisfied with the overall quality of service they received from their NGDCs last year, which is a slight improvement from 80 percent in 2006.

9/5/2008