DPU Releases Customer Survey Results

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on August 25, 2017
- 3:08 pm

COUNTY News:

DPU began to survey its customers every two years in 2005 to measure perceptions regarding service quality, value, reliability and communication effectiveness.

The Board of Public Utilities further adopted a strategic plan objective for the DPU to achieve and maintain a mean satisfaction score equal to or greater than 3.5. Customers are asked to rate their experience as 4 = excellent, 3 = good, 2 = fair, or 1 = poor. Results from the 2017 customer satisfaction survey conducted last May are in. More than 8 out of 10 respondents (84 percent residential and 82 percent commercial) rated the DPU’s overall performance as good or excellent.

The survey, conducted by Southwest Planning & Marketing, randomly sampled 421 residential customers and 78 commercial customers for a margin of error (confidence interval) no greater than ±4.65 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. DPU’s 2017 overall satisfaction scores are just shy of meeting the 3.5 strategic plan objective, 3.3 for residential customers and 3.4 for commercial customers.

Residential customers ranked:

Quality of electric, water and sewer services as above good at 3.4;
Natural gas services at 3.5.

Commercial customers rated:

Quality of all four services at 3.6, well above good.

Survey respondents also were asked to consider quality relative to price or value for all four services.

Residential customers rated:

Value of electric, water and sewer services just below good at 2.9; and
Water services were rated good at 3.0.

Commercial customers rated:

Value of these services as good with electric, gas, and sewer services at 3.2. and
Water services at 3.1.

Reliability of services was rated well above good by residential and commercial customers.

Residential customers rated:

Gas, water and sewer service reliability at 3.5; and
Electric services at 3.4.

Commercial customers rated:

Reliability of electric, water and sewer services at 3.6; and
Natural gas service as approaching excellent at 3.7.

DPU made some improvements with customers regarding communication effectiveness to inform the public on DPU initiatives, projects and services. Residential customers gave DPU a 3.1 in 2017, up from 3.0 in 2015. Commercial customers rated DPU as above good at 3.3 in 2017, up from 3.1 in 2015.

In addition to questions on DPU’s performance, new questions were added to identify customers’ awareness, use and ease of use of the new Los Alamos DPU App. Rolled out in April 2017, the new app allows customers to manage their DPU accounts on their computer or mobile devices. Half (51.9 percent) of the residential customers were aware of the app, and of those customers, half (53.7 percent) use the app. Residential app users rated its ease of use as approaching good at 2.7. Commercial customers were less likely to be aware of the app and to use it; of the 41.7 percent of customers who were aware, only 27.3 percent use it. Like residential customers, commercial app users rated its ease of use at 2.7.

Another question posed to DPU customers was how strongly customers agree or disagree with Los Alamos County pursuing nuclear power as an option to replace energy from the San Juan Generating Station. The county’s contract in this coal-fired generating station expires in 2022. Approximately three-fourths (73 percent) of residential customers and 60 percent of commercial customers “agree” or “strongly agree” that the county should pursue this option. Fifteen percent of residential customers and 22 percent of commercial customers “disagree” or “strongly disagree.” The remaining customers had no opinion.

DPU also was interested to know its customers’ plans for electric vehicle purchases, to better anticipate future electric demand for the community. Seventy-five percent of residential customers and 83 percent of commercial customers responded that they do not own, nor do they plan to own, an electric/hybrid plug-in vehicle within the next seven years.

“We want to thank the customers who took the time to respond to our survey,” Utilities Manager Tim Glasco said. “We appreciate the honest and thoughtful feedback provided and commit to utilizing the information gained to contemplate and implement worthwhile improvements to better meet our customer needs.”

The complete 2017 Customer Satisfaction Survey is available at https://rebrand.ly/2017_DPUCustomerSurvey and the summarized presentation shared with the Board of Public Utilities at the Aug. 16, 2017 meeting at https://rebrand.ly/2017_DPU_SummarizedCustomerSurvey.