The Sacramento Municipal Utility District outscored all large utilities in California for residential-customer satisfaction in the latest J.D. Power and Associates survey of residential customers. It was the eight consecutive year that SMUD was on the top of the heap for residential-customer satisfaction.
SMUD, whose physical employees are represented by IBEW Local 1245, scored 689 out of a possible 1,000 points. Among large utilities in the West, the District ranked second, just behind Arizona’s Salt River Project (696). The average score for large utilities in the region was 638. Across the continental United States, SMUD ranked seventh among 121 large and medium-size electric utilities in this year’s survey.
In separate surveys, commercial customers also have given SMUD high marks, with the District ranked tops in California for five of the last six years.
J.D. Power asks customers to rate their electric utility in six areas: customer service; power quality and reliability; company image; price and value; communications; and billing and payment.
SMUD residential customers’ satisfaction with price was the highest of any utility in the national survey. SMUD scored in the top 10 percent nationally for measures of power quality and reliability, billing and payment systems, corporate citizenship, communications and customer service.
For the 2009 residential-customer survey, 79,500 online interviews were conducted across the continental United States. More than 900 SMUD customers participated in the survey, with the data reflecting results of 299 interviews conducted in April and May of this year.