The 427,000 customers who purchase electricity, water and sewer services from JEA are more satisfied today than they have been in the 120-year history of public utilities in Jacksonville.
That was the report given Tuesday to the community-owned utility’s board of directors, based on surveys conducted by J.D. Power and Associates.
Since 2012, JEA has improved from 116th among 126 utilities surveyed to 32nd in the U.S. in terms of customer satisfaction for utilities with at least 125,000 consumers, according to the survey. Among utilities in Florida, JEA improved from last place among 10 utilities to 4th place among 11 utilities.
“Being focused on excellence is parallel to integrity,” said Monica Whiting, JEA chief customer officer. “It’s the foundation of being a community utility. We are here in service to our customer owners.”
Six areas are evaluated by J.D. Power in calculating a utility’s overall customer satisfaction index: Billing and payment; communications; corporate citizenship; customer service; power quality and reliability; and price.
The research and analysis costs JEA $56,000 annually.
Whiting said while there is a fee associated with the evaluation, the improvement in customer satisfaction has been achieved without increasing the price customers pay for service.
After the measured criteria were established as companywide priorities, changes were made in all departments to improve in the overall rating.
“There is no cost to policy changes. We listened to our customers, recognized opportunities and used existing assets,” said Whiting.
Some of the largest gains in satisfaction came in the communication with customer categories and JEA ranks better than industry averages.
For instance, when an outage occurs, 90 percent of JEA customers surveyed said their power was restored when it was promised or before it was promised, compared to the industry rate of 84 percent.
When a customer uses JEA.com to report an outage or other issue, about 82 percent of the complaints are resolved with the first contact, compared to 65 percent for utilities surveyed.
Making payment convenient through electronic billing methods is an industry trend. In the latest survey, only 67 percent of JEA’s customers still receive a traditional paper bill. That’s 10 percent fewer than two years ago.
Outreach to customers is another area where JEA is gaining ground. In 2012, customers reported recalling news reports about their utilities at about the same level – 35 percent – as they recalled direct communication from JEA. The latest numbers show a gap of about 20 percent, with news reports recalled by 37 percent of customers, compared to 57 percent recall of direct communication.
The top categories for JEA customer communication recall were, in order, information about energy efficiency or rebates, consumer safety information and options for renewable energy.
Customer priorities also are studied by J.D. Power. Ironically, the lowest priority among JEA customers at 5 percent is customer service.
Power quality and reliability top the list at 28 percent, followed by price and billing and payment tied at 19 percent. Corporate citizenship comes in at 16 percent, followed by communication at 14 percent.
When JEA began its program with J.D. Power in 2012, the goal was to achieve the current level of improvement within four years. With the utility one year ahead of schedule, Whiting said there still is work to be done to further improve the product and its relationship with customers.
“We’re not No. 1 in the industry yet,” she said. “We still have opportunities.”
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