Customer survey results provide valuable information for RPU strategic planning
The Rochester Public Utility Board was presented with the customer survey results at the July Board Meeting by representatives from GreatBlue Research.
The purpose of the survey was to identify customer views on a wide range of topics including RPU’s environmental stewardship efforts, renewable energy, future technologies, smart grid metering, communication, office hours, and overall customer satisfaction.
Highlights of the survey include:
- 87.8% of residential customers “agreed” that RPU is an environmentally responsible company. 88.2% of commercial customers “agreed” that RPU is an environmentally responsible company.
- 59.2% of residents and 49.5% of commercial customers reported RPU should be “aggressive” in setting goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- 29.0% of residents would be willing to pay 10% more to increase efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and another 25.6% would be willing to pay 5% more.
- 83.7% of residents and 70.8% of commercial customers support RPU investigating the process of installing and maintaining solar power in homes/businesses.
- 81.6% of residents support RPU offering smart grid digital meters (only 59.7% of businesses supported)
- Overall, respondents were happy with office hours – only 17.9% of residents said it would be helpful to have longer office hours and 12.1% of businesses said it would be helpful to have longer office hours.
- Regarding communication, 41.8% of residents and 41.6% of business reported the “internet” was a preferred source of information.
Customer satisfaction continues to be strong with 95.7% of respondents reporting to be “satisfied” with RPU representative interactions.
“The information also reinforces that we are doing a lot of the right things necessary to set the standard for service and to continue as a customer-focused organization. This survey information will provide staff and the RPU Utility Board with valuable insight from customers for future strategic planning, budgeting, and allocating of resources to make improvements in how we serve our customers in the future,” said RPU General Manager Mark Kotschevar.
The complete survey presentation is available to view on the RPU website, http://www.rpu.org/documents/2015_customer_survey_data.pdf.
About Rochester Public Utilities
As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 50,000 customers. Water customers number more than 37,000. RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive. Current initiatives include fuel cell research, wind power, and photovoltaic offerings
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