Two Tulsa Area Utilities Rank Below Average

Oklahoma’s largest electric utilities were among those rated below average in a regional study of business customers.

However, both AEP-South — including Tulsa-based American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma and the Texas Units of American Electric Power — and Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. scored higher in the customer satisfaction survey than they did two years ago.

According to the "J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study," OG&E and AEP-South were ranked seventh and eighth among 13 regional utility companies.

Stan Whiteford, an AEP-PSO spokesman, said the survey lumped the utility in with others that face different regulatory environments and different power issues.

"We think we would fair better if it was PSO by itself," he said.

AEP-South scored 695 on a 1,000-point scale, and OG&E scored 698. The average among the Southern region utilities, which included the Oklahoma companies, was 705.

In 2006, OG&E’s score was 45 points lower and AEP-South registered

34 points below where it stood in the 2008 survey.

"Both have improved dramatically," said Al Destribats, vice president of the energy utility practice for J.D. Power and Associates. "The trend over the last five years is that utilities are getting better at dealing with commercial customers."

Brian Alford, an OG&E spokesman, said the utility has been ranked highest in residential customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates on two occasions.

He said the utility takes is sues facing its commercial customers seriously.

"We want to make sure that we are doing what we can to improve our service to them," Alford said.

The nationwide survey was based on interviews with representatives of more than 13,500 U.S. businesses that spend between $500 and $50,000 per month on electricity, J.D. Power and Associates said.

Overall, the study of the 58 largest electric utilities reflected improvements in four of the six factors used to measure customer satisfaction.

The customer service category and the billing and payment category posted the largest increases, followed by increases in the power quality and reliability category and communications. Company image and price factors remained relatively unchanged from the 2007 study.

Destribats said commercial customers of utilities want options and information from power providers, including payment options, 24-hour cus tomer service and price options.

"They look at the utility as the expert on energy," he said. "They want help with what to do."

Nationwide, customer satisfaction has increased to 697 points in 2008, compared with 690 during the 2007 survey.

The factor playing the largest role in determining customer satisfaction was power quality and reliability. That factor contributes 21 percent to a company’s overall rating.

Destribats said the survey, which was conducted between Sept. 20 and Dec. 26, could have been impacted by the power outages during the Oklahoma ice storms in January 2007 and December 2007.

J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing information services firm based in Westlake Village, Calif., began studying electric utility satisfaction 10 years ago.

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Jason Womack 581-8380 jason.womack@tulsaworld.com

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