AEP-PSO's customer satisfaction rank drops to 9th
BY ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2013
2/14/13 at 7:43 AM
AEP-PSO dropped one spot regionally in a satisfaction ranking by business customers, according to a J.D. Power and Associates survey released Wednesday.
The primary electric utility in northeastern Oklahoma fell to ninth place among Southern midsize electric utilities, with 645 points on a 1,000-point scale. American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma finished eighth regionally with 659 points in the 2012 J.D. Power survey.
AEP-PSO spokesman Stan Whiteford said the utility does not subscribe to J.D. Power so he did not know the specific analytics of the ratings. However, he said that improving customer satisfaction is always a primary goal.
"We're certainly are always looking to do the best we can for our customers," he said. "We're always plugging away at it."
The survey indicated that business customer satisfaction ratings decreased overall, despite a slight gain in the communications segment. J.D. Power interviewed representatives with more than 25,700 businesses that spent at least $250 monthly on electricity.
"Even with the multiple weather events and an increase in the average outage time, satisfaction with power quality and reliability has decreased only three points," John Hazen, senior director of the energy utility practice at J.D. Power, said in the report. "In addition to customer service, the area in which utilities are facing significant criticism is in corporate citizenship, where business customers are critical of utility efforts to develop energy supply plans for the future as well as utilities showing business leadership in local communities."
Entergy Texas topped the Southern midsized segment with a 687 rating by business customers. Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility, ranked sixth in the Southern large utility group with 645 points.
AEP-PSO provides electric power to about 530,000 customers statewide. OG&E serves 750,000 customers.
Original Print Headline: AEP-PSO's customer satisfaction ranking falls
Rod Walton 918-581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com
