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Equitable Gas Company Earns Top Industry Performance in Customer Service

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 September 2009, 14:48 CDT

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Equitable Gas Company, LLC today announced its results from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's (PUC's) annual Customer Service Performance Report released in August. The results indicate continued improvement and top gas industry performance in Pennsylvania for Equitable Gas in customer service.

The PUC's report, available on their Web site, provides 2008 statistics on important components of customer service as well as the level of customer satisfaction with a company's handling of recent interactions with them.

"Outstanding customer service is a priority for Equitable Gas," said M. Elise Hyland, President. "Our employees strive to provide courteous, professional and high-quality interactions with our customers. The improvement in Equitable Gas customer satisfaction reported in the PUC's annual report demonstrates that our employee's hard work coupled with the significant investments we have made in technology and infrastructure is working."

For 2008, Equitable Gas Company's call center had top Pennsylvania gas company performance. Its call abandonment rate was the lowest, with only three percent of customers abandoning their calls prior to speaking to a customer representative, and service level ranked second with 80 percent of customer calls answered within 30 seconds. In addition, no Equitable Gas customer received a busy signal when calling its call center.

In addition, the company tied for first in the Commonwealth in the timeliness of responses to customer disputes, with none exceeding 30 days.

The PUC's report also includes data from approximately 700 random customer transaction surveys. Equitable Gas ranked first in western Pennsylvania in the surveys in satisfaction with the ease of reaching the company and use of the company's automated phone system. In addition, Equitable Gas had the top survey rakings in the Commonwealth for three Field Representative categories -- courtesy, knowledge and respect for property -- with 100 percent of respondents answering they were either "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" when asked how satisfied they were with a field visit.

As part of its focus on improving customer service through technological improvements, Equitable Gas installed new automated readers on gas meters enabling the company to provide customers with bills based on actual monthly meter readings. In addition, the company launched a new Web site in April of this year to assist customers in managing their accounts on-line.

Equitable Gas Company is a provider of safe and dependable natural gas service to more than 270,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers located mainly in the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Its customer base also includes more than 200 municipalities in nine other counties in western Pennsylvania, 12 counties in central and northern West Virginia, and nine counties in eastern Kentucky. Additional information about Equitable Gas can be obtained through its Web site, http://www.equitablegas.com.

Equitable Gas Company, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of EQT Corporation (EQT). EQT is an integrated energy company with emphasis on Appalachian area natural gas production, gathering, processing, transmission and distribution. Additional information about EQT can be obtained through EQT's Web site, http://www.eqt.com.

SOURCE Equitable Gas Company, LLC

Source: PR Newswire

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