American Gas - April 2014 - (Page 22)

special focus the J.D. power myStIquE How workINg for HIgH raNkINgS HElpS utIlItIES provIDE bEttEr SErvIcE to cuStomErS By Jennifer Pilla Taylor S ince J.D. Power and Associates began tracking natural gas customer satisfaction in 2002, South Jersey Gas had been pretty firmly ensconced among the top-performing utilities in the eastern U.S. So in 2011, when the survey results showed the company tumbling eight places from the previous year and scoring below average for its region, it was especially troubling news. Rather than questioning the survey, however, managers at the utility questioned themselves, convening a small team of individuals from across the company to determine what went wrong and devise a turnaround plan. Within two years, having implemented changes in everything from its website to its call center to its field operations, South Jersey Gas is back on top of its peer group, with its highest score since 2006. "Sometimes it takes a jolt like that to get you to take a 360-degree look at yourself," says South Jersey spokesman Dan Lockwood. "Ultimately, it made us a 22 AMerICAn GAS aprIl 2014 better company." At nearby UGI, which has ranked at or near the top of its peer group for the past several years, the survey data recently prompted executives to take a closer look at their billing and payment practices-an area where their scores had been "flat," says UGI marketing strategy manager Stacy Lord. As a result, they are in the process of introducing enhancements to their mobile billing and payment options, something survey respondents have said they want more of. "From our president to our managers, we always look at the results to see where we can do better," says Lord. "It's a big part of our continuous improvement efforts." In the 12 years since its inception, J.D. Power's residential natural gas utility rankings have inspired multiple top-to-bottom reviews as well as countless tweaks to customer satisfaction strategies. At natural gas utilities across the country, it's used not just as a promotional tool, but also as a benchmark against which they measure their efforts. Because the survey has become so influential, American Gas decided to take a closer look at how it's put together. J.D. Power Senior Director Jeff Conklin filled us in on just about everything you ever wanted to know about the numbers that help shape the direction of this industry. Collecting the Data The process never really stops, says Conklin. In fact, the firm is fielding surveys pretty much continuously to reach its goal of about 65,000 over the course of a year. That will give them about 800 surveys each for the 74 utilities (chosen because they are the 74 largest) that are ranked. Though the surveys were initially conducted over the phone, about eight years ago J.D. Power switched to online surveys. That's because it was becoming increasingly difficult to get a panel that was representative of the survey's target age, which is about 47. "Young people don't have land lines," Conklin says. "The average age was just getting older and older and older."

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American Gas - April 2014