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.<>