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Every year, the E Source Utility Customer Research Consortium (UCRC) conducts a national survey of more than 1,000 customers on requirements and preferences. We call this our “money ball” survey and use it to test our most basic assumptions of what drives customer value and satisfaction in the utility sector.

This year’s survey report title is “The Unbearable Lightness of Utility Customer Satisfaction.” As usual, the report contains what many may consider to be surprising findings. We asked hard, probing questions that others in the industry may shy away from asking.

What did we learn? In short, customers are satisfied with their local utility and believe the utility provides good service and value. But utilities aren’t leveraging this customer goodwill, and it could slowly dissipate to the point of disappearing. Customer satisfaction could prove to be a chimera. We also learned that a quarter of survey respondents would leave their utility if they could.