The majority of electric and natural gas customers were satisfied with the way customer service representatives handled their calls in 2011, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the Public Utility Commission.

The 2011 Customer Service Performance Report measures the customer-service performance of the state’s major electric and natural gas companies.  This year’s report summarizes data from 2009, 2010 and 2011.  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 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 answered within 30 seconds, abandoned by customers or 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 customer perception of access to the company; employee courtesy and knowledge; promptness and timeliness of a response or visit; and satisfaction with the handling of the interaction.  All of 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 of the electric distribution companies (EDCs): UGI Utilities Inc. – Electric, PECO Energy Co. and PPL Electric Utilities Corp., and declined for two.

-- Four of the seven natural gas distribution companies (NGDCs) – PGW, Peoples Natural Gas, UGI Penn Natural and UGI Utilities Inc. Gas - reported improved telephone access performance for 2011. One of the EDCs - West Penn Power - and two of the NGDCs – Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania Inc. and PGW - reported improved statistics regarding the number of residential disputes that did not receive a response within 30 days.

Customer survey result highlights include:

-- On average, 89 percent of EDC consumers reported they were either somewhat or very satisfied with the overall quality of service they received from their EDCs in 2011, the same as in 2009 and 2010.

-- On average, 86 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 an increase from 85 percent in 2010.

The full report is available at the PUC website.

8/13/2012