(Credit: Escalent)
To measure customer engagement, Escalent conducted surveys among 59,377 residential electric, natural gas and combination utility customers of the largest U.S. utility companies.
UGI Utilities, Inc., PPL Electric Utilities have been recognized by Escalent, a top data analytics and advisory firm with extensive energy, utility and brand experience, as two of 47 2024 Customer Champions for continuing to build engaged customer relationships.
(Credit: Escalent)The distinction is part of Escalent’s Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Residential study, which tracks the performance of 142 utilities and is published twice a year.
According to the report, Customer Champions outperform the industry average in several attributes, including:
“These aren’t utilities that have suddenly started outscoring their peers in 2024,” says Suzanne Haggerty, director of syndicated research with the Energy industry practice at Escalent. “Most Customer Champions have higher scores now than they did prepandemic, meaning they held on to at least some of that 2020 scoring bump.”
To measure customer engagement, Escalent conducted surveys among 59,377 residential electric, natural gas and combination utility customers of the largest U.S. utility companies.
“UGI’s mission of delivering safe, reliable, and affordable energy services is built on providing high level customer service,” says Dan Adamo, UGI’s Vice President of Customer Relations. “We are proud to be among the Customer Champions and continue to invest in our employees and technology to make our customer service even better.”
UGI Utilities is a natural gas and electric utility that serves more than 740,000 customers in certificated portions of 46 counties in Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland.
(Credit: Escalent)PPL Electric Utilities delivers electricity to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania.
A new Cogent Syndicated report from Escalent finds that business customer engagement with utilities has improved significantly, ending a trending decline that began at the end of 2020. Although all major indices see year-over-year improvement, a significant Brand Trust gain has had the most impact on the Engaged Customer Relationship (ECR) score recovery, with improved scoring related to utility company reputation and business community support leading the index gain.
Those are some of the latest findings of the 2024 Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ (UTBCE): Business study, which tracks the performance of 78 gas, electric and combination utilities to identify brand and customer experience opportunities and trends in the industry. The report is published semiannually by Escalent, a top data analytics and advisory firm with extensive energy, utility and brand experience.
After reaching a peak of 793 in mid-2021, the business ECR score steadily declined throughout 2022 and 2023 until it reached a low of 766. The score finally turned around in early 2024 and has ended the year at 784.
Even when index scores see significant declines, none has dropped below levels in the second half of 2019, and scores in the second half of 2024 are significantly higher than pre-pandemic.
“While the industry is unable to maintain the pandemic scoring boost seen in 2020 and early 2021 for residential customers, utilities have been able to retain a large portion of that increase for business customers,” said Suzanne Haggerty, director of syndicated research with the Energy industry practice at Escalent.
