MONROE, Ga. – Walton Electric Membership Corporation’s (EMC) customer-owners have grown accustomed to seeing their cooperative utility rank near the top of J.D. Power’s annual satisfaction surveys.
The recently released 2021 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study is no exception. Walton EMC ranked second among cooperative electric utilities nationwide and first in Georgia with a score of 816 (on a 1,000-point scale). It ranked fourth nationally among all types of utilities (cooperatives, government-owned and investor-owned).
The top scoring cooperative posted a mark of 822. The average score for cooperative utilities is 787. For investor-owned utilities, that average drops 41 points to 746. The lowest ranking utility came in at 647.
The 2021 study is based on responses from 100,999 interviews conducted throughout the year among residential customers of the 145 largest electric utilities across the United States, says J.D. Power. The utilities surveyed represent more than 101 million households.
Survey participants were asked to rate their utility’s performance in six areas: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; communications; corporate citizenship; and customer care.
“Our primary task and reason for being is serving our consumers,” said CEO Ronnie Lee. “Our employees and board treasure the confidence they put in us to deliver the essential electric power they depend on every day.”
“Although the survey indicates they’re satisfied with our service, we’ll continue to find ways to improve. That includes not only improving their electric and customer service, but also improving the ways we serve their local communities,” said Lee.
Walton EMC is an innovative, customer-owned and focused electric utility serving accounts in 10 Northeast Georgia counties between Atlanta and Athens. In its long history of meeting customer-owners’ needs, the cooperative established successful natural gas and security subsidiaries as well as nationally recognized residential and commercial solar initiatives. For more information, visit waltonemc.com.