Survey: Majority of Lodi ratepayers satisfied with electric utility service

A recent survey of Lodi Electric Utility customers shows that 71.2% of residential ratepayers are satisfied with their service.

The Lodi City Council received a presentation of a 2022 customer satisfaction survey during its Tuesday morning shirtsleeve meeting.

The survey, conducted by Great Blue Research, was performed between March 18 and April 22, and contained 58 questions for residential customers.

Some 600 residential surveys were completed, of which 236 were conducted over the phone. The remaining 364 were conducted via email, according to Tuesday’s presentation.

In addition, Great Blue Research surveyed nine commercial customers in Lodi, and found that 77.8% of those who answered the 51-question poll were satisfied with service.

Residential customer satisfaction was up from 64.8% when the survey was last conducted in 2019. This was the first year Great Blue Research surveyed commercial customers.

Of the residents surveyed, 36.5% were age 65 years or older, while 21.7% were ages 55 to 64. In addition, 53.2% had household incomes of $75,000 or more.

Of the commercial customers, 44.4% surveyed had less than 10 employees, and 55.6% owned the business, according to results.

What the survey found was that fewer customers are reporting their issues are taken care of the first time they contact Lodi Electric’s customer service department, and that customers are finding it increasingly difficult to understand the charges on their bills. As a result, they are requesting more explanation as to how rates are determined, as well as

month to month data showing their usage and rates over time.

In addition, fewer customers are finding it easy to locate information on the electric utility’s website, and fewer are satisfied with the quality of that information.

Great Blue Research suggested the utility should focus on improving “the ability of customer service personnel to resolve issues” by providing additional training and materials to improve their knowledge of programs, services, billing and outage restoration protocols.

The utility should also explore options for more clearly explaining how charges are determined, provide charts displaying usage over time, and provide tips for ways to conserve energy.

Lastly, the research firm said the utility may want to conduct a “user experience” test to determine which specific areas of its website customers are having difficult times navigating.

Melissa Price, Lodi Electric’s rates and resources manager, said the survey results were not surprising. However, she said the utility has undertaken several efforts to improve service since 2019.

“We’ve embarked on a marketing and advertising campaign with signs and buses, and will continue to do so,” she said. “You had some good points. We had some things underway, but I think we still have some work to do. (Sandra Smith, business analyst) and I worked quite a bit on our website. Just because it works for us doesn’t mean it works for the customer. So we’ll work on that a little bit.”

Price said what has been difficult for her to comprehend is why many Lodi Electric customers think rates are higher than those of PG&E.

She said the utility provides comparison information both on the Lodi Electric website, as well as on inserts included with bills.

Lodi Electric rates are not higher than PG&E’s and never will be, she said.

“I think we’re in reasonably good shape,” mayor Mark Chandler said.

“Obviously the communication effort needs to continue, and that’s what we’re here for.”