New for 2010: Quarterly Benchmarking of Key Service Measures. First Quartile will be conducting quarterly benchmarking of key customer service measures such as Average Speed of Answer, Meter Reading Accuracy, Customer Delinquency and 9 other important measure. Don't miss out on this opportunity to get "real-time" information for making changes to your practices and improve performance. E-mail: debi.mclain@1qconsulting.com
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APPA Customer Service Benchmarking Register for 2009
First Quartile Consulting's annual American Public Power Association Customer Service Benchmarking survey allows public power utilities to compare their customer service performance and practices to other public power utilities across the country.
The survey helps to support continuous improvement by providing the following benefits to your utility:
- Assess your performance against that of your peers
- Set realistic goals based upon your demographics
- Identify practice changes that have been successful elsewhere
- Reinforce ongoing change efforts by tracking your performance
Reasons to benchmark with First Quartile Consulting include:
- Brief, yet comprehensive questionnaire
- Powerful on-line software
- Emphasis on case studies and initiatives
- Comparison to our investor-owned utility statistics
- Detailed research on current topics of interest
In 2007 we developed a simple yet powerful survey tool that met the needs of all sizes of APPA members without creating a mountain of paperwork and for the first time it was offered on-line. In 2008 we improved the on-line data entry form and added a few key questions to provide better information. We've started discussions for the 2009 program to determine any changes needed to the questionnaire. Read an article published following the 2007 study that describes some of the learnings.
As part of the survey program, we will identify the most innovative practices and create a forum to share that information. We hope that you will participate and get your success stories out to your peers and your community.
Case Studies
For the purposes of this benchmarking survey, we defined “innovators” as those utilities who are actively working on initiatives to improve their performance. We did not try to necessarily identify the “most innovative”. In fact, measuring innovation would require a whole benchmarking study by itself: Who was the first to adopt a practice? Who was the most successful in its execution? Who achieved the best results?
What we did do, was to identify utilities that reported especially active and interesting initiatives and then ask them to prepare case studies. We selected big and small utilities from all regions of the country. We also wanted to cover as broad a range of initiatives as could be covered in a small set of case studies. (Complete Overview)
We worked with the following utilities to prepare case studies:
- Anaheim Utilities – Credit and Collections
- Lakeland Electric - Contact Center (CSR Assignment and First Contact Resolution Measurement)
- Omaha Public Power District – Meter Reading (AMR implementation)
- Tacoma Public Utilities – Billing (Web-based functionality and bill presentment) and Field Service (Mobile Data)
Members of the 2008 APPA CS Benchmarking Community can download complete case studies here.
Results Presentation at APPA Customer Connections Conference, October 28, 2009. A complete Schedule of Events is available here.
List of 2008 participants:
| Anaheim Public Utilities |
City of Redding Electric Utility |
Lakeland Electric |
| Azusa Light & Water |
City of Riverside |
Lewes Board of Public Works |
| Benton PUD |
Easton Utilities |
Los Angeles Department of Water & Power |
| Bryan Texas Utilities |
EPB, Chattanooga |
Omaha Public Power District |
| Burbank Water and Power |
Fort Pierce Utilities Authority |
Pasadena Water & Power |
| City of Denton |
Greenville Utilities |
Sacramento Municipal Utility District |
| City of Gillette |
Holland Board of Public Works |
Salt River Project |
| City of Glendale |
Johnson City Power Board |
Seattle City Light |
| City of Longmont |
Kissimmee Utility Authority |
Tacoma Public Utilities |
Price: $1,150
How to participate:
- Step 1: Learn more about the survey by downloading the 2008 survey questions
- Step 2: Complete our on-line registration form
- Step 3: We'll email you a link and password to our online survey form and send you the 2009 questionnaire.
- Step 4: You'll receive invitations to our conference calls and will receive a draft report of your results, as well as a final report, your customized profiles and an invitation to the final results meeting.
For additional information, please contact:
Ursula Schryver, APPA, uschryver@appanet.org, 202-467-2980
Debi McLain, First Quartile Consulting, Debi.McLain@1qconsulting.com, 760-272-7277
Tim Szybalski, First Quartile Consulting, Tim.Szybalski@1qconsulting.com, 925-878-5066
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