Service interruptions: the customers´ views

Conventional wisdom holds that, after safety, the minimum threshold to favorable customer opinion in the electric utility industry is satisfactory service dependability. In other words, if service dependability (or `reliability´) is poor, everything else a utility does will be viewed as poor by customers. The utility that intends to remain successful should stay abreast of its customers´ perceptions. To this end, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) periodically surveys its customers to better understand their attitudes toward service dependability and other customer service issues. A 1990 study focused on the perception of residential and commercial customers of their electric service dependability. The goal was to improve their understanding of customers´ perceptions of service dependability. They also hoped this knowledge would help pinpoint locations or customer segments where service dependability improvements would have the most beneficial effect on customers´ perception at the lowest cost. The results were used to determine the relationship between customers´ overall satisfaction with PG&E and several measures of service dependability