Duane Hicks
Results from the Fort Frances Power Corp.’s recent customer engagement survey soon will be available.
The survey was conducted in November and December, and drew close to 600 respondents–an “overwhelming response” that equals 15-20 percent of FFPC customers and is double the response for the last such survey, according to FFPC technical customer service representative Jeremy Nussbaumer.
“The more customers you get, the more realistic picture you get,” he noted.
The survey also was a contest, in which respondents were entered to win an iPhone X.
The winner was Christine Byma.
The bi-annual survey is conducted to gauge customer satisfaction, as well as provide input on future initiatives of the utility, explained Nussbaumer.
He added the survey results soon will be available on the FFPC website under the “Customer engagement” tab.
“Previous results are on there, as well, so customers can see how people responded and see the survey results,” Nussbaumer noted.
“There’s a testimonial section, too.
“It’s pretty basic right now but it will be expanded [this year],” he added.
FFPC president and CEO Joerg Ruppenstein said once the FFPC has had the chance to digest all of what their customers are telling them, they will be communicating back to customers what their key findings are and how they’ll try to integrate the findings into their decision-making.
“Customers really do have a voice,” he stressed. “Customers will have a say on what we spend money on.”
Ruppenstein said a good part of the FFPC’s focus is to align their business services with what customers want, which is a concept new to electrical distribution companies.
“Now we are actually talking to customers to help us make plans, and keep customers in mind when roll out systems and do construction projects,” he explained.
Ruppenstein added the FFPC is one of the first Ontario utilities to roll out a formal customer engagement plan, which is for 2017-19.
“We are actually talking to all kinds of business customer focus groups to get their input on how we can run our business better and what our customers want to see,” he said.
For example, on the technology side, the FFPC has been asking customers if they are interested in using an app on their iPhone to access their account, pay bills, and access outage information, Ruppenstein noted.
Nussbaumer said that with “Nest” technology, for example, homeowners even can control their thermostat with their iPhone.
There’s related apps out there that can tell the homeowner how much money they’re saving by turning down the heat at home when they’re not there.
