Press Release

HARRISBURG – Approximately 85 percent of consumers were satisfied with the overall quality of the customer service they received from their electric company in 2001, according to a new report released today by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC).

The report – the 2001 Customer Service Performance Report – is an annual evaluation of the customer-service performance of the state’s seven major electric distribution companies (EDC), which include Allegheny Power, Duquesne Light Company, GPU Energy, PECO Energy Company, Penn Power, PPL Utilities and UGI-Electric.

"The Customer Service Performance Report allows consumers to see how well their electric distribution company is responding to their questions and concerns," said Mitch Miller, Director of the PUC’s Bureau of Consumer Services (BCS). "Consumers can monitor an EDC’s customer-service performance from year to year. The utilities also can use the report to see how their level of service quality compares to other companies."

The report’s 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 percent of calls receiving a busy signal and the percent abandoned by customers. It also measures how often companies failed to read meters, issue bills and promptly respond to customer disputes.

The customer surveys measure access to the EDC; employee courtesy and knowledge; promptness and timeliness of an EDC response or visit; and satisfaction with the handling of the interaction. Independent survey companies randomly selected consumers who had contacted the EDC throughout the year.

Company-reported highlights include:

• GPU, PECO and Allegheny Power reduced their number of abandoned calls – the number of customers that terminate calls while on hold to speak to a representative;
• Companies reported answering between 63 percent and 86 percent of calls within 30 seconds. Allegheny Power, UGI-Electric, PECO and GPU answered more calls within 30 seconds in 2001 than they did in 2000;
• PPL, Duquesne and Penn Power reduced the number of busy signals a customer received when calling the company. The remaining four companies reported stable numbers from the previous year; and
• Penn Power and Allegheny Power reduced the number of residential disputes that did not receive a response within 30 days.

Highlights from the customer surveys showed that:

• An average of 87 percent of customers responded that they were either "satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the ease of reaching an EDC.
• Approximately 85 percent were satisfied with the amount of time it took to speak with a company representative.
• On average, 94 percent of customers that spoke with a company representative indicated that the company person was either "very courteous" or "somewhat courteous" and an average of 92 percent rated the representative as "very knowledgeable" or "somewhat knowledgeable."

Copies of the full report are available from the PUC’s website at www.puc.paonline.com, under Consumer Services and PUC Reports.

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