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��i <br />Elk River <br />Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING <br />TO: <br />FROM: <br />ERMU Commission <br />Tony Mauren — Governance & Communications Manager <br />MEETING DATE: <br />AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: <br />November 12, 2024 <br />5.10 <br />SUBJECT: <br />Customer Satisfaction Survey <br />ACTION REQUESTED: <br />Receive the Customer Satisfaction Survey Report — Q3 — 2024 <br />BACKGROUND: <br />In December of 2019, the Commission voted to replace the customer satisfaction survey <br />component of the Utilities Performance Metric and Incentive Compensation (UPMIC) scorecard <br />due to low response rates from ERMU's internal efforts for data. As an organization, ERMU <br />places high value on customer feedback, so staff researched and pursued alternative <br />approaches to track satisfaction. <br />In December of 2021, ERMU entered into a contract with Q Market Research (QMR) to survey <br />ERMU's residential customers, seeking to measure overall satisfaction with services and <br />programs. The survey also focused on key topics including reliability, value, ease of doing <br />business, quality, customer concerns, and communications. Initially QMR was contracted to <br />distribute two rounds of 1,000 surveys in 2022, each consisting of 500 emails and 500 letters. <br />With a goal of reaching as many customers as possible prior to the implementation of <br />Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), that distribution was increased to two rounds of <br />about 2,500 surveys in 2023 and two rounds in 2024, again evenly divided between emails and <br />letters <br />DISCUSSION: <br />For the Q3 - 2024 distribution surveys were sent on September 1 to a total of 1514 residential <br />customers, receiving 126 responses, a response rate of 8.3%. This distribution was the last to be <br />undertaken until the completion of AMI when staff will work to recraft the questions based on <br />the update to service. As the number of unreached residential customers has decreased, it has <br />become necessary to select individuals throughout the service territory rather than more <br />definable regions as before. <br />Key findings in this round include that overall satisfaction with ERMU is generally high, scoring <br />6.3 out of 7; ERMU's Net Promoter Score (NPS) jumped back into the "Excellent" range, 54.7; <br />ERMU gets medium -strong grades for community involvement and trending upwards, 7.8 out <br />of 10; the communications experience with ERMU is highly positive and consistent over time, <br />Page 1 of 3 <br />124 <br />