WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – J.D. Power and Associates has awarded National Grid’s operations in Rhode Island and upstate New York second place in the East Region, in its annual Gas Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study.
The utility’s natural gas operations in New York City and Long Island – formerly Keyspan, until its acquisition in August by National Grid – took first place in the region for the second year in a row.
The Keyspan unit scored 745 points for overall satisfaction on a 1,000-point scale, while National Grid’s Rhode Island and upstate New York operations scored 737 points. By comparison, the average score for natural gas utilities in the region was 723 points; the national average was 715 points, down 8 points from last year.
“We are pleased to have gone up in satisfaction in a difficult year where the industry average has gone down,” Nick Stavropoulos, National Grid executive vice president for U.S. gas distribution, said in a statement yesterday afternoon.
“This achievement reflects our commitment to delivering the best possible customer experience in everything we do every day. I am extremely proud of the thousands of National Grid employees who work tirelessly to deliver excellent customer service.”
The study measures how well gas companies are satisfying their business customers, ranking the nation’s 40 largest gas utility companies based on: billing and payment; communications; company image; customer service; field service; and price. The results are based on more than 5,800 online interviews with gas-company customers.
“A myriad of reasons – including increased gas consumption, rising fuel costs and rate increases – have contributed to higher customer-reported bill amounts,” said Al Destribats, vice president of the energy practice at J.D. Power and Associates. “Unfortunately, customer-reported revenue growth did not keep pace with the increase in gas bill costs.”
Respondents said their natural gas bills that rose 31 percent compared with a year ago, to an average of $4,124, while their own businesses’ revenue increased only 16 percent, the survey found.
National Grid, a division of the U.K.-based National Grid plc (NYSE: NGG, LSE: NG), distributes electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.nationalgridus.com.
J.D. Power and Associates – a unit of The McGraw-Hill Cos. – is a global research, forecasting, training and performance improvement firm. Its quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers per year. To learn more, visit www.jdpower.com.
