WASHINGTON, DC Mar. 05, 2003 To help state public utility commissions hear directly from consumers, the National Regulatory Research Institute, NARUC's research arm, and BIGresearch, a market research firm, conducted the survey over the Internet in January and received responses from 18,793 people across the country.
Respondents assigned a grade from "A" to "F" to 14 different industries. A grade point average (GPA) was calculated just as is done in schools and colleges across the country. An "A" is four points; a "B," three; a "C," two; a "D," one; and the dreaded "F," no points. The actual question was, "In your opinion, how do you grade the following industries on customer service." As you can see from the chart, not one industry made the "Dean's list," which would take a 3.0 grade point average. In fact, these are closer to "D" averages ("poor") than "C" ("good"). The highest-scoring industry was banking, with a 2.25 GPA. The lowest was financial institutions (credit card companies).
Average Grades for All Industries Banks 2.25 Local Phone 1.87 Hospitals 2.14 Long Distance 1.78 ISP 2.14 Cellular 1.78 Water 2.09 Insurance 1.74 Airlines 2.06 Car Dealers 1.72 Electric 2.04 Cable 1.66 Natural Gas 2.01 Financial Institutions 1.60 Industry Average = 1.92 A = 4.0 B = 3.0 C = 2.0 D = 1.0 F = 0 Source: NRRI/BIGresearch - Utility Service Quality Study
The initial survey results were released last week at the NARUC meetings in Washington by Commissioner Carl W. Wood, Chair - NARUC Committee on Consumer Affairs, and NARUC President, David A. Svanda.
"There is a tremendous amount of information embedded in the survey to be mined. Some of the most important insights will help commissions know more about different types of consumer education and how to improve consumer protection," said Francine Sevel, Ph.D., Senior Consumer Affairs Policy Analyst for the NRRI. "We will be releasing additional analyses from the database over the next few months."
In addition to questions on customer service, for each utility and telecommunications company (except cable), the survey asked about billing, installation, outages, rates, repairs, sales practices, termination, unauthorized changes of provider and other issues. It asked about consumer perceptions of price and the impact of competition or choice. It asked respondents whether they switched providers in the last year. The data can be analyzed by state, metropolitan area or zip code.
For more results on industry "grades," go to www.nrri.ohio-state.edu and select "Consumer Utility Benchmark Survey."
The NRRI was established by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in 1976 at the Ohio State University. The NRRI provides client-driven research and services to inform and advance regulatory policy. NRRI programs of regulatory research and service include utility infrastructure; utility markets; consumer affairs and education; and commission organization, process and development. www.nrri.ohio-state.edu.
BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm that provides unique consumer insights that are gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch's syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 7,000 consumers each month providing insights for identifying opportunities in today's competitive and changing marketplace. www.bigresearch.com/.
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