PR5 - Practices related to customer satisfaction, including results of surveys measuring customer satisfaction

External customer satisfaction tracking for AEP and its seven operating companies is measured either on a quarterly or semi-annual basis.Residential, Commercial, and Call Center Transactional surveys are fielded quarterly. Key Accounts surveys are administered semi-annually.

Residential, Commercial, Call Center Transactional, and Key Accounts surveys are administered via telephone interviews conducted by third party market research vendors. Use of independent third parties to field these surveys adds to the impartiality and credibility of the data collected as well as providing substantial opportunities to obtain utility industry benchmarking.   Residential and commercial (750 kW or less) customer satisfaction surveys are fielded using random samples of telephone numbers (including cellular phone numbers) accessed from AEP's customer (MACSS) information system. Quarterly quotas are set at the individual state level. Call Center Transactional customer surveys are administered using completed transaction records obtained nightly from each of AEP’s six call centers. Quotas are set at the individual AEP call center. Key Accounts surveys are administered primarily via telephone with facsimile and internet options available. AEP provides a random sample of its 750 KW demand or greater commercial and industrial customers. Quotas are set at the individual AEP account manager level.

All four customer satisfaction tracking surveys provide opportunity for those customers to provide feedback to AEP, either anonymously or identified by actual customer. In order to be tagged to a specific customer, the customer must specifically consent to share their identity with AEP. Customer survey feedback is both in the form of responses to quantitative (scaled) survey items as well as qualitative (open-ended) comments. The three quarterly surveys contain a ‘triage’ capability where, if the customer wishes AEP to contact them regarding the source of their dissatisfaction, customer concern forms are generated and communicated to AEP overnight for immediate entry into AEP’s customer complaint database and follow-up. The Key Accounts survey also provides a similar feedback mechanism in the event that a very dissatisfied customer is surveyed and agrees to share their particular issues with AEP.  Additional modalities of capturing customer feedback include comments provided to the company through the AEP.com internet site, individual AEP operating company internet sites, e-mail communications, letters and telephone calls. Complaints or issues needing remediation are entered into a formal complaints tracking database to ensure timely and thorough follow-up.

Summary results for calendar year 2010 are shown in the table below:

Percent Satisfied:

Ratings of Very Satisfied and Somewhat Satisfied on a five point satisfaction scale on the question “Based on your overall experience with AEP’s service, how satisfied are you with having them as your electric company?”

Key Accounts:  Ratings of 8 to 10 on a 1 (Very Dissatisfied) to a 10 (Very Satisfied) rating scale on the question “Overall, how satisfied are you with the full package of electrical services provided by AEP?”

Call Center Transactions:  Ratings of 6 to 10 on a 0 (Extremely Dissatisfied) to a 10 (Extremely Satisfied) rating scale on the question “In summary, thinking about your entire experience with AEP from the time you called until the request was completed, how satisfied were you with the entire transaction experience?”

Quartile Ranking vs. National Peer Group:

Residential, Commercial, and Key Accounts:  Quartile ranking reflects placement relative to national peer group of electric and electric/gas utilities.  The members of the benchmarking group differ by survey. 

Call Center Transactions:  National benchmarking is not available for this survey.