Your PQR score makes up more than a quarter of your JD Power customer satisfaction ratings. That significant PQR chunk is directly influenced by how your customers regard your company’s management of power quality and reliability, especially during outages. If you find yourself wondering when or how to communicate during an outage or service interruption, or if you’re concerned with reputation management, this webinar is for you. Access it by going to http://info.fgiresearch.com/pqr-research-webinar/

1. PQR Research for Utility Companies:
Improve Your Communications Strategy
and Customer Satisfaction Score
February 2012

2. Today’s speaker is Dino Fire, Director of
Marketing Science at FGI Research
→ dfire@fgiresearch.com
→ 616-530-3220
Today’s hashtag: #pqrscore
FGI on Twitter: @FGIResearch
2

3. PQR Ratings…Who Cares?
→ Regulators care!
→ Legislators care!
→ C-Suite managers at utilities care!
→ Utility company employees care!
→ The public cares…just ask JD Power!
3

4. PQR’s Role in Customers’ Satisfaction
→ Most utilities measure customer satisfaction overall, and
power quality and reliability in particular. The two
metrics are highly correlated.1
→ PQR ratings comprise more than a quarter of the JD
Power overall satisfaction index—no other single
attribute has more influence.
So…
→ Utilities can improve customer satisfaction scores by
improving satisfaction with power quality and reliability
1 Pearson’s 4
R correlation 0.707 based on previous FGI research

5. FGI’s Process for Measuring and Impacting
Satisfaction in Outage Situations
1. Identify and measure the factors that drive PQR satisfaction
2. Understand how PQR satisfaction is correlated to your customers’
satisfaction
3. Communicate your findings and get executive buy-in and approval
4. Take specific steps to improve your PQR results without investing
billions in infrastructure
5. Measure how much you actually improve your PQR scores
6. Measure how much you actually improve your overall customer
satisfaction scores
7. Communicate success!
8. Repeat for continuous improvement
5

6. PQR Measurement: The Survey
6

7. Respondent Profile
→ Sample = 3,228 interviews
→ Nationwide survey
→ 50 states + DC represented
→ 203 DMA’s
→ 267+ Electric utilities
7

8. Methodology
→ Stated outage recall
→ Interaction with their electric company
→ Electric company performance
→ PQR satisfaction
→ Choice exercise…choose the “best” option
√ Duration
√ Frequency
√ Time of Day
√ Notifications
→ Recalculate PQR satisfaction based on outage scenarios
8

9. Methodology
From this set of four options, please pick the ONE that you would
rather have take place. In other words, which one of the four
options is least annoying to you?
DURATION Less than 5 min 30 min – 1 hour 1 hour or more 5 – 15 minutes
FREQUENCY Twice a year Once a year Twice a year 3 times a year
TIME OF DAY Afternoon Middle/night Morning Evening
NOTIFICATION Email Text Twitter/FB None
9

10. Self-Reported Outage Information
10

11. Residential Outage Frequency
= 2.0 Outage in Past 90 Days
outages per year
Base: At least one outage
in past year
n = 3,228
Base: Total Sample
Adjusted for outliers (>=7)
n = 3,004
Q100. In the past year, on how many separate occasions did you lose power at your personal residence? 11
Q101. Have you experienced an electrical outage at your personal residence in the past 90 days?

12. Outage Duration, Most Recent Occurrence
55
minutes
Base: At least one outage in past year
n = 2,567
Q102. These next few questions are about the most recent time you lost power at your residence. 12
Approximately how long was your power out on this most recent occasion?

13. Residential Outage Actions
Called Electric Company Provided Restoration Estimate
53% of those who called their
electric company were provided
a reason for the outage.
Base: At least one outage
in past year
n = 2,567
Q103. Did you call your electric company to get information about when power might be restored?
Q104. Did your electric company provide you with an estimated time power would be restored?
13
Q104A. Did your electric company provide you with a reason your power was out?

14. Accuracy of the Restoration Estimate
Actual restoration time was…
Just about right
Somewhat longer Somewhat shorter
Much longer than estimated than estimated Much shorter
than estimated than estimated
Base: Provided restoration time for outage
n = 645
Q105. Once power was restored, how accurate was your electric company’s estimate of restoration time? 14

15. Notification
13%
Received at
least one
notification
Base: At least one outage in past year
n = 2,567
Q106. Did you receive any of the following notifications from the electric company during the most recent
power outage? For example, you may have received an email at a work email address, a text message on
15
your phone, or a Twitter or Facebook notification.

16. PQR Satisfaction
How would you rate your electric
company on the quality and reliability of
the electric power it provides?
= 8.1
PQR Satisfaction Rating
Base: Total sample
n =3,228
Q200. Using a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is excellent and 1 is terrible, how would you rate your electric 16
company on the quality and reliability of the electric power it provides?

17. PQR Satisfaction Based on Outage
No Outage
PQR Satisfaction Rating
No Outage = 8.6 n = 2,062
Had Outage = 7.3 n = 1,166
Outage
The difference in means is
statistically significant at the 95%
confidence interval.
Q200. Using a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is excellent and 1 is terrible, how would you rate your electric 17
company on the quality and reliability of the electric power it provides?

18. PQR Satisfaction Based on Notification
Notification
PQR Satisfaction Rating
Notification = 7.8 n = 150
No Notification = 7.3 n = 1,016
No Notification
Base: At least one outage in past 90 days The difference in means is
n = 1,166 statistically significant at the
95% confidence interval.
Q200. Using a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is excellent and 1 is terrible, how would you rate your electric 18
company on the quality and reliability of the electric power it provides?

19. Effects of Outage Variables
Duration of outage (DURATION)
Less than 5 minutes
5 to 15 minutes
15 to 30 minutes Less than 5 minutes
30 minutes to 1 hour
1 hour or longer Once a year
Frequency of outages (FREQUENCY) Middle of the night
Once a year
Twice a year Any (ideal) notification
Three times a year
Four or more times a year
Time of day when the outage occurs (TIME)
Morning – before leaving for work or school
Afternoon – before returning home from work or school
Evening – between dinner time and before bed time
Middle of the night
7.8
Average PQR satisfaction rating
Notification about restoration time (NOTIFY)
Email
Automated phone call or message
Text message
Twitter or Facebook feed
No notification
Base: Total sample
n = 3.228
19

20. Importance of Outage Variables
20

21. PQR Effects of Duration
Duration
Base: Total sample 21
n = 3.228

22. PQR Effects of Frequency
Frequency
Duration
Base: Total sample 22
n = 3.228

23. PQR Effects of Time of Day
Frequency
Time of Day
Duration
Base: Total sample 23
n = 3.228

24. PQR Effects of Notifications
Notification
Frequency
Time of Day
Duration
Base: Total sample 24
n = 3.228

25. www.fgiresearch.com/pqrsimulator
25

26. Demographics
Gender Pct Race/Ethnicity Pct Education Pct
Male 35% Asian 3% Some high school 1%
Female 65% American Indian 1%
High school graduate 16%
African American 5%
Children in Household Pct Some college/trade 31%
Hispanic 2%
Yes 32% College graduate 31%
White/Caucasian 88%
No 69% Some post grad work 6%
Other 1%
Income Pct Employment Status Pct Post grad degree 15%
Under $25,000 15% Employed – full time 44%
Generation Pct
$25,000 – $35,000 11% Employed – part time 14%
$35,000 – $50,000 16% Seniors 11%
Not currently 22%
$50,000 – $75,000 23% employed Baby Boomers 44%
$75,000 – $100,000 16% Retired 21% Generation X 33%
$100,000 – $150,000 12% Home Ownership Pct Millennials 12%
$150,000 – $200,000 3% Own 78%
Over $200,000 3% Rent 22%
26

27. Q&A
→ dfire@fgiresearch.com
→ cdall@fgiresearch.com
→ FGI on Twitter: @FGIResearch
→ www.fgiresearch.com
→ Our blog: info.fgiresearch.com/blog
27