Residential customer satisfaction with electric utilities increases - Yahoo! Finance

From an news release issued by J.D. Powers and posted on Yahoo! Finance:

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Residential customers of electric utility companies report lower bills and improved handling of power outages, resulting in an increase in overall satisfaction from 2008, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study(SM) released today.

The study measures customer satisfaction with electric utility companies by examining six key factors: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; communications; and customer service.

The study finds that customer satisfaction with utility companies in 2009 averages 618 on a 1,000-point scale--up from 614 in 2008. Driving this improvement are customer reports of lower bill amounts ($130 in 2009 from $132 in 2008, on average) and fewer power outages (an average of 1.9 in 2009 vs. 2.1 in 2008)(1).

In addition, electric utility companies have improved notably from 2008 in three key aspects of power outage communications: availability of information; accuracy of outage restoration estimates; and follow-up contacts.

"Even in a challenging economic climate, electric utility companies have improved power reliability and enhanced communications with their customers, especially when outages occur," said Alan Destribats, vice president of the energy and utility practice at J.D. Power and Associates. "This investment in communication technologies and processes is key to the industry's overall improvement."