Double Positive

Colder-than-normal temperatures in January and February coupled with a wicked cold snap reminiscent of Winter Storm Uri caused increased electricity usage for United Cooperative Service members, only to be further compounded by nationwide skyrocketing energy prices.

Yet, despite a challenging start to the first quarter of 2022, United members gave United a score of 90 to their co-op after participating in telephone and online questionnaires posed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®).

The score not only marked the third quarter in a row with a score of 90 or more, but also kept the cooperative's average for the past four quarters well above scores earned this year by other electric cooperatives across the nation grouped by similar size and collectively by Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, the national brand alliance for electric cooperatives. 

United members didn’t just give high marks to their electricity provider. As installers achieved and surpassed the 10,000th activation mark, members who have United’s new high-speed internet service rated for the first time their experience with a score of 84 points; a grade which stands head-and-shoulders above the average score of 70. That score is considered among the best for the internet/telecom industry.

United CEO Cameron Smallwood said the number again stood as testament to all employees’ efforts to ensure they deliver exceptional service and value to the membership every day regardless of whether their primary focus is on electric or internet.

“A score of 90 is an incredible achievement on its own,” Smallwood said. “To have scored so high for three straight quarters, despite rising fuel costs and the cold temperatures we experienced, tells me and the employees that our organization continues putting our members first each and every day. And we do this with everything that we do, even when conditions aren’t optimal. The 84 for our internet service is icing on the cake to be rated so highly so soon after we started our deployment. Still, we realize that there is always room for improvement in what we do, and I want to raise that score on our internet service to match the high standard of our electricity service. So, we will continue to find ways to make those improvements. 

“However, the feedback we’ve received from this survey shows our employees are truly engaged in living the mission statement. Compared to other co-ops and for-profit utilities or internet providers, we’re still at the top of both fields. 

United members who agree to give up a brief amount of personal time in their busy schedules to participate in regular quarterly member satisfaction surveys continue to play an important role in improvements the cooperative continually seeks to make in its service delivery to them, he said.

The ACSI® has been a national economic indicator for 25 years. It measures and analyzes customer satisfaction with more than 400 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors, and it represent a broad swath of the national economy. The index’s scientific model provides key insights into the entire customer experience as well as indications of micro and macroeconomic performance and measures customer satisfaction and retention using four standardized questions. 

The four questions focus on the following attributes: overall satisfaction, confirmation of expectations, comparison to an ideal utility company and intention to choose said utility again. Through Cooperative Insights data collection and the ACSI’s satisfaction metrics, United Cooperative Services receives a proven, independent third-party assessment of member feedback.

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index Energy Utilities Study 2021-2022 released this March, overall residential satisfaction crept up to 72.2 on a scale of 0 to 100 after several years of decline. The report found cooperative energy utilities, unchanged since the last report at 73 points, now share the top spot with municipal energy utilities, which climbed 2.8 percent. Investor-owned energy utilities stand at a steady ACSI score of 72. 

Landy Bennett, United’s chief administrative officer, said he believed part of the reason why the score was so high during a challenging time was because the transparency United has shown throughout the time fuel prices have risen. He said he is also pleased that so many members took advantage of the multiple energy-saving programs the co-op has to offer its members.

“Even though our members were disappointed in the rising cost of electric generation, they were very complimentary of the professionalism of the employees and the reliability of service and upfront communications at United and thankful for the ‘above and beyond’ service that this co-op provides,” Bennett said. “When United started tracking ACSI scores in 2004, our first score was an 85. Since that time, our employees have focused on the necessary things required to improve that score.  We will and must do the same thing with internet services.”

Marcellus Nixon, United’s vice president of internet services, echoed that desire for improvement. Because of the rapid expansion of connected internet users, technicians have had to “tweak the system” to keep up with the brisk demand.

While he said he is proud the initial score of 84, which was better than some of the incumbent providers that have been providing internet services for years, he said he knows our members want and demand reliable internet services and the same member service that we strive for on the electric service…and our goal is to continually improve on this “base” score.

 “We know we have areas that require improvement, and we are working hard to address those each day,” Nixon said. “However, I was pleasantly surprised, especially when I read some of the member comments that demonstrate that we are on the right track.”

Thanks to feedback from United’s ACSI participants, Nixon said areas of improvement include examining internet speeds members are experiencing versus what they are paying for and planned service enhancement activities versus outage. He will also work on performing service enhancements to ensure service reliability and educating members on how device speed can play a role in determining the speed and quality of an internet experience.

“We have a lot of work to do to improve to a 90,” he said. “I have known for a long time that it is one thing to build internet infrastructure, but there’s an entirely different effort required to operate the infrastructure at a high level.  Overall, I am happy with the score. But we will continue to work hard each day to bring our members this vital service.”