City Water, Light, and Power's
2024 Customer Satisfaction Survey results are in, which show high overall satisfaction ratings and provide valuable insights for the planning and expansion of future CWLP’s services and programs. This survey is the result of a collaboration between the CWLP Customer Relations Division and the University of Illinois Springfield Center for State Policy and Leadership (CSPL). The survey was commissioned to better understand CWLP customers’ preferences as well as their level of satisfaction with multiple aspects of the services CWLP provides. The project aims to provide actionable data to CWLP for use in future planning and budgeting.
Sample & Methodology
On September 23rd, 2024 the CSPL mailed 10,000 letters to a random sample of all CWLP residential customers. The sample was stratified based on customer zip code rate to match percentages equal to that of all CWLP customers. The letter invited the household take the survey online, providing a unique respondent ID number and link to do so.
On October 11th, 2024 the CSPL mailed 1,000 paper surveys to households that had yet to complete the survey. Zip codes in the North and East of Springfield were slightly lower than their percentages of CWLP customers in completing the survey by that point. To encourage participation from those zip codes, this 1,000 person sample invited approximately twice as many households from the underrepresented areas than their percentages equal to that of all CWLP customers. The remaining number of households reflected a random sample of the additional zip codes.
A total of 1,223 respondents completed the survey, with 110 responding through the mail and 1,113 responding via the web. 2 people sent back their surveys as they didn’t wish to participate. One respondent’s letter was sent back as they were deceased. 1 was returned as undeliverable. The response rate for the project (AAPOR RR3) is 12.2%, the cooperation rate is 99.8% (AAPOR Cooperation Rate 3), and the refusal rate is (AAPOR Refusal Rate 3) is 0.0%.
While respondents were quite representative of CWLP customers, for the sake of more accurate and useful comparisons, zip codes were grouped together for analysis into four geographic groups. Further the four groups were adjusted, using a standard statistical procedure known as post-stratification weighting, to reflect their percentage of the CWLP customer base.
Survey Results
According to the survey, 85% of respondents are satisfied with CWLP, with satisfaction ratings consistent across all regions of Springfield. Over two-thirds, 69%, positively evaluated the quality of electric and water service compared to the price, and 75% valued CWLP’s role as a municipal utility. When asked to choose a top priority for CWLP to receive “very satisfied” ratings, over half of the respondents, 54%, chose affordability, and 34% chose reliable energy and high quality water.
Respondents indicated how they rated satisfaction of CWLP among certain characteristics. Those with the highest ratings noted as either satisfied or very satisfied were: Providing Reliable Energy at 86%; Restoring Power After A Storm at 83%; Providing High Quality Water at 78%; Providing Easy To Understand Bills 77%; and Being Trustworthy at 73%.
Key Highlights Summary:
• Affordability is Key: Over half of respondents (54%) believe CWLP’s primary focus should be on keeping rates affordable to maintain satisfaction.
• Trustworthiness: Customers rated CWLP’s trustworthiness highly, with an average score of 4.06 out of 5.
• Technology and Communication Needs: Many customers (60%) expressed interest in receiving notifications about power outages, while 55% want a feature to report and track outages online.
• Water Priorities: Water quality, reliability and cost are top priorities, which is consistent from results in the previous 2016 survey. Concern for water cost increased since the 2016 survey and concern for an additional water supply to withstand a drought went down since the last survey.
• Interest in New Programs: Half of respondents (50%) support reduced energy rates for specific times of the day, and 54% are open to participating in programs for energy management, which would allow CWLP to control smart thermostats during peak energy events, especially if incentives are offered.
• Energy Services-Efficiency Program Use: Only 26% of respondents were aware of CWLP’s energy efficiency and water conservation programs, but nearly twice as many CWLP customers reported using technical assistance from the office in 2024 (34%) compared to 2016 (20%).
• Sustainability: When it comes to offering customers resources to manage energy costs, 73% rate that priority as very important or important for a utility to offer.
Relating more specifically to programs and services, respondents put high priority on CWLP offering reduced energy rates for certain times of the day, energy assistance programs for customers in hardship, level payment plans and home energy audits.
On a question about water service, respondents put the highest importance on CWLP focusing on Water Quality, Water Reliability and Water Costs.
Satisfaction was measured for how a respondent rated importance of a characteristic in general compared to how they rated CWLP on the same characteristic among: "providing easy to understand bills; restoring power after a storm, providing high quality water, providing easy-to-use options for customers online, offering resources to help customers manage energy costs; being trustworthy, being environmentally responsible, providing reliable energy, and working hard to keep costs affordable." Overall the largest difference between how they rate the importance of a characteristic in general versus specifically for CWLP was for “working hard to keep costs affordable” and “providing high quality water.”
For CWLP electronic/website features, highest preference ratings were given to Receiving Notifications About Power Outages, Reporting and Tracking Power Outages, and Paying Bill Online. As the table shows, there is notable variation across Springfield for the percentage of respondents who expressed a preference for each option, but not in the preferences for those top three preferred options of the overall analysis.
For customer offerings for programs and services, respondents put high priority on reduced energy rates for certain times of the day, energy assistance programs for customers in hardship, level payment plans and home energy audits.
Next Steps
CWLP is committed to addressing programs and services of interest that customers would like to see to expand in order to improve and maintain customer satisfaction. Based on the survey results, while ensuring CWLP customers continue to receive dependable, cost-effective electric and high quality water services, the utility will upgrade electric meters and explore varied electric rate structures which could make time of use rates and enhance customer outage communications. With enhanced communications, improving CWLP website features and increasing awareness of its efficiency programs and rebates offered by the Energy Services Office, will also be priorities.
CWLP's 2024 Customer Satisfaction Survey was conducted by the UIS Center for State Policy and Leadership (CSPL) is dedicated to the principles of transparency in research and through their Survey Research Office is a charter member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Transparency Initiative. Membership entails adherence to AAPOR’s code of ethics as well as a commitment to promoting understanding of survey methodology and how it relates to survey quality. For more information about project methodology please contact the UIS Survey Research Office at sro@uis.edu.
