PNM has mediocre showing in J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey
Mar. 15—Public Service Company of New Mexico ranked 13th out of 17 large electric utilities in the region in J.D. Power's annual survey of residential customer satisfaction.
Results of the survey for 2021 also indicate the four electric utilities owned by Avangrid, which hopes to merge with PNM, had low rankings in their respective categories in the Northeastern U.S.
PNM, Avangrid and its parent company, Iberdrola of Spain, tried to merge last year, but that attempt was blocked by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. The companies have appealed the commission's decision to the state Supreme Court.
J.D. Power provides customer service surveys and data for businesses and industries. It said it conducted 100,999 online interviews nationwide from January through November of 2021 to rank the utilities.
The survey asked respondents to evaluate companies on power quality and reliability, price, billing, communications, customer care and corporate citizenship. J.D. Power grouped companies by region and size.
PNM wrote in an email it finds the J.D. Power survey a "great source of information on various aspects of electric residential customer satisfaction. PNM takes these results very seriously and strives to continuously improve based on customer needs and desires."
PNM and Avangrid said they also use other surveys to assess customer satisfaction.
Avangrid spokeswoman Joanie Griffin said the J.D. Power survey was "perception research" and "just one measurement of customer satisfaction." She also wrote in an email Avangrid subsidiaries' customer satisfaction scores are improving.
El Paso Electric Co. ranked 12th of 17 in the region, and Southwestern Public Service Co., which serves a small area of southeastern New Mexico, finished 13th of 20 companies among midsize electric utilities in the South.
New Mexico Gas Co. ranked sixth out of nine large gas utilities in the Western region.
Ray Sandoval, a spokesman for PNM, said the company uses a customer service study done by New Mexico-based Research & Polling, Inc.
"This study is conducted via telephone and therefore reaches customers who cannot participate in the J.D. Power polling activities due to lack of computer access," he said. "This is important to us since we are an economically challenged state and not all customers can participate in a computer survey."
He said Research & Polling's last two surveys "have shown that PNM is highly trusted by its customers."
The Avangrid electric subsidiaries had low rankings. Central Maine Power finished last in its group; United Illuminating of Connecticut ranked next-to-last; New York State Electric & Gas 14th of 17; and Rochester Gas and Electric eighth of 11.
Griffin said Avangrid's electric subsidiaries reduced the number of customers affected by outages by 22 percent last year.
She also said Central Maine Power has "turned the corner on our customer service challenges."
