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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 10215 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10215 January 15, 2019 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 1 of 3 SUBJECT: CUSTOMER SURVEY RESULTS FOR WATER DEPARTMENT The City of Fort Worth water utility is committed to meeting the needs of our customers, but to do so requires understanding how customers currently view the utility and what their needs are now and in the future. The utility is using two survey tools to gain insight: a utility commissioned survey of customers and the J.D. Power Water Utility Residential Survey. To that end, the City contracted with ETC Institute to conduct a Water and Wastewater Utility Survey during the summer of 2018. This is the same company which conducted citizen survey. The purpose was three-fold: To objectively assess customer satisfaction with the delivery of utility services; To provide a benchmark for tracking performance over time; and To help determine priorities as they relate to water and wastewater issues and awareness A six-page survey was mailed to a random sample of water utility customers. A follow-up email encouraging participation was sent to customers who were mailed the survey. Respondents had the option of completing the survey online. 1,615 customers completed the survey, with a minimum of 200 respondents in each City Council district. The results have a 95 percent level of confidence with a precision of at least +/- 2.4 percent. There were no statistically significant differences in the results of the survey based on the method of administration (mail vs. online). The bottom line results are: Customers are very satisfied with water and sewer services provided by the City of Fort Worth Customers are generally satisfied with the billing process Communication with customers is positive, but there is room for improvement Some of the specific results are: 75% were very satisfied or satisfied with the overall quality of water services provided by the City of Fort Worth; 77% were very satisfied or satisfied with the overall quality of sewer services provided by the City of Fort Worth; At least 78% who contacted customer service were satisfied with some aspect of their experience Only 2% thought the ease of paying their water and wastewater bill was The room for improvement on communication is derived from responses that show most customers who responded were unaware of the conservation programs, such as SmartFlush, and the educational programs offered. The utility will examine its outreach communication efforts to determine how to enhance these efforts. Bill inserts are still a major communication tool. Twenty percent of respondents said they always read the bill inserts, 31 percent said they do most of the time and 30 percent said they do sometimes and only 19 percent said they seldom or never read the inserts. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10215 January 15, 2019 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 2 of 3 SUBJECT: CUSTOMER SURVEY RESULTS FOR WATER DEPARTMENT An advantage in having ETC conduct the survey was that the company also does similar surveys for other water utilities, and could therefore offer benchmarking against other water utilities. Fort Worth performed better than the U.S. and Large U.S. Average in all but one area the taste of drinking water. The chart to the right illustrates this benchmarking. As the utility prepares for selecting portal functionality to be used in the MyH2O program, customers were asked about preferred communication methods for both non-priority and priority events as well as functions they would like be able to complete online. Respondents could choose multiple answers for these questions so the responses total higher that 100 percent. For priority notifications (main breaks, water outages, boil advisories and street closures) 52 percent want email messages, 41 percent want text messages, 31 percent want a door hanger and 23 percent want a recorded phone call. Less popular options were website (11 percent), mobile application (9 percent), Facebook (7 percent) and Twitter (2 percent). For non-priority information, such as educational programs and events, e-mail messages (45 percent) and bill inserts (38 percent) ranked the highest, followed by door hangers (17 percent) and website (16 percent). The less popular options were text message (12 percent), recorded phone call (9 percent) Facebook (7 percent) mobile application (5 percent), and Twitter (2 percent). Customers have a strong desire to be able to report more things online, such as a main break or leak (39 percent), a water quality concern (37 percent), a water outage (35 percent) or a sewer backup (31 percent). Also, 21 percent want to be able to request a billing investigation online. Customers also want to be able to access more frequent water use information 30 percent want monthly data and 29 percent want daily data. The utility is planning to incorporate functionality to do most of these things online through the MyH2O portal. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10215 January 15, 2019 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 3 of 3 SUBJECT: CUSTOMER SURVEY RESULTS FOR WATER DEPARTMENT J.D.Powers began doing a water utility survey in March 2016. The company quarterly surveys customers of the 89 U.S. water utilities serving 400,000 or more people. Four quarters (June, September, December, March) are compiled into the annual results. The survey is online only and its pool is people who sign up to take surveys. Utilities are grouped into four regions. Texas is in the south region, which is the largest of the four regions with 32 water utilities. st The 1 quarter of the 2019 survey has Fort Worth receiving a Customer Satisfaction Index of 744. The highest score in the south region is 790 (Gwinnett County) and the average score in the south region is 730. The only Texas water utility with a higher rating was El Paso Water at 751. The average CSI nationally was 716. Fort Worth ranked the highest in the nation in communications. According to the J.D. Power results most customers from their utility; however, when communication is recalled satisfaction increases by more than +50 index points. In addition, 85 percent of Fort Worth respondents reported no water quality issues, and 84 percent reported no service interruptions. These marks placed Fort Worth tied for eighth and thirteenth, respectively, in these categories for the 89 utilities in the country. Fort Worth was also one of the top performers in the country in regards to frastructure, tied for sixth. th J.D. Powers also conducts a briefer wastewater survey in the same cities. Fort Worth ranked 10 in the south region and 16th out of all 89 utilities. The water utility plans to conduct the customer survey every two years and will continue to monitor the results of the J.D. Power survey to gain insights from customers to make sure it is meeting customer expectations and providing exceptional customer service. Should you have any questions regarding this project, please contact Kara Shuror, Deputy Water Director, at 817- 392-8819. 5ğǝźķ /ƚƚƉĻ /źƷǤ ağƓğŭĻƩ ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS