5.8 ERMUSR 11-8-2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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��i Elk River Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: FROM: ERMU Commission Tony Mauren — Executive Administrative Manager MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: November 8, 2022 5.8 SUBJECT: Customer Satisfaction Survey ACTION REQUESTED: Receive the Customer Satisfaction Survey Report — Q3 — 2022 BACKGROUND: In December of 2019, the Commission voted to replace the customer satisfaction survey component of the Utilities Performance Metric and Incentive Compensation (UPMIC) scorecard due to low response rates. As ERMU places a high value on customer feedback, staff researched and pursued alternative approaches to track satisfaction with consideration for returning this metric to the UPMIC scorecard. In December of 2021, ERMU entered a contract with Q Market Research to survey ERMU's residential customers, seeking to measure overall satisfaction with services and programs. The survey also focused on key topics including reliability, value, ease of doing business, quality, customer concerns, and communications. Q Market Research was contracted to distribute two rounds of 1,000 surveys in 2022, each consisting of 500 emails and 500 letters. DISCUSSION: On September 7 the second round of surveys was sent. For this distribution we focused on completing the outreach from round one which included the west side of Lake Orono, the neighborhood surrounding Trott Brook Farms Park, as well as the Otsego and Dayton territories. We then incorporated residences closer to Joplin Street in the southwest region and the neighborhood near Twin Lakes Elementary. A total of 109 responses were received in Q3 compared to 87 in Q1. For further comparison, ERMU received 136 responses from all customers in 2019 when the survey was conducted by our staff. Key findings in this round include the fact that ERMU's Net Promoter Score jumped into the Excellent range and almost all the scores increased incrementally. Also, there was much broader participation among age groups, compared to Q1 where there were more older respondents. To quote a representative from Q Market Research, "I think the customer service ERMU provides was seen as excellent and this had a big contribution to improved scores." Page 1 of 2 91