Form reform

Computer-readable survey forms no longer have to resemble the multiple choice tests that haunt schoolchildren's dreams. The advent of sophisticated software that can read handwritten marks, numbers and letters now allows researchers to send out forms that are much less daunting to the respondent.

They don't need to look like the forms of old, with their rows of ovals that required precise filling in with a No. 2 pencil. Instead of blackening the dots, respondents can answer with an X or a check mark. And a pen will do just fine, thank you. Gone are the numerous hash marks in the margins that guided the machine's eye over the form. Now only a few marks are necessary, freeing form designers to increase type size and use colors to help respondents follow skip patterns.

Three years ago, seeking to make its surveys easy for respondents to complete, Northern States Power Co. (NSP) switched to machine-readable image/OCR (optical character recognition) forms for its ongoing customer satisfaction mail research. Minneapolis-based NSP provides electricity to 1.4 million customers in five midwestern states and natural gas to 400,000 customers in four states, covering a service area of approximately 49,000 square miles.

The quick turnaround time in processing the forms also helps the NSP research department better serve its internal customers, says Mike Peppin, supervisor, market research, NSP. "It's critical that we get the results out to our internal customers quickly because they have satisfaction goals that they have to meet."

For help with designing its machine-readable surveys, NSP turned to Data Recognition Corp. (DRC), a Minnetonka, Minn., firm that provides custom survey processing services. DRC also maintains the master customer database for NSP and mails and processes the surveys, using high-tech, image/OCR scanning technology.

"NSP wanted a survey form that was user-friendly looking," says Wayne Serie, vice president of DRC. "They didn't want their customers to feel like they were completing a test. We designed a form that allows the customer to concentrate on thinking about NSP's service, not how ugly the form is."
NSP provides DRC daily and weekly samples of customers who have recently had contact with NSP representatives. Customers are mailed a four-page document (a one-page cover letter and a three-page survey). If a customer has received a survey from NSP in the past year they aren't sent another one, to avoid bothering them unnecessarily.

Respondents are asked to rate NSP's performance and describe their interaction with its representatives. They also answer a few open-ended questions on ways to improve NSP's service. "The verbatim responses are quite valuable as far as giving specific direction on improvement," Peppin says.

Focus groups

The content of the mail survey is a product of focus groups held with customers who had contacted NSP for help in one of the following service areas:


1. Electric design and construction - Installing new service and changing existing service for residential, commercial and industrial customers.

2. Electric services - Responding to power outages and other maintenance work.

3. Customer business office/phone center - Answering billing and service inquiries and other questions.

4. Tree trimming - Trimming, at customer request, trees that pose a danger to power lines and customers.

5. Underground utility locating service - Informing customers of buried utility lines.

6. Field sales reps - Visiting customers to discuss service problems and conservation and load management programs.

"We found that, from the customer perspective, the process is very similar across those six transactions," Peppin says. "The objective of the mail surveys is to find out how well we meet customer needs with those transactions."

Through the focus groups, NSP was able to break the customer interaction process into four steps and identify the criteria customers use to judge NSP's performance during these interactions. Each step raised a number of questions. Answering these questions in the survey would help NSP tailor its service to meet customer expectations.

Step one is accessing NSP. Do customers know what phone number to call? When they call do they get a busy signal? Do they spend a lot of time on hold? Are they able to speak to a representative when they want to? Do they get transferred around?

Once they get access, how are they treated? Is the person courteous and knowledgeable? Are their calls returned promptly? Does the NSP representative show concern for their situation? Do they tell the customer when the work will be done and how long it will take?

Next is the overall service experience. Are NSP field service representatives courteous, knowledgeable, etc.?

Step four is the work itself. Did NSP do what it said it would do? Did the representative show up on time? Was the work completed correctly and on-time? Did the crew clean up after itself at the work site?

New programs

DRC returns the results to NSP as raw data and as summarized data reports. The open-ended comments are coded and categorized by DRC staff. DRC also quickly passes along to NSP any "hot comments" from the open-ended responses in which customers ask to be contacted by NSP or indicate there is a potentially dangerous situation with the utility service in their home or business.

The NSP research department issues quarterly and annual internal reports on the survey findings. "We report quarterly on the survey results so that our internal customers get feedback throughout the year they need to make adjustments," Peppin says. If needed, NSP can also call DRC to get mid-quarter updates to see how things are going.

The surveys have helped NSP rectify problems and institute new programs to satisfy customers in service areas that are important to them. One of those programs is a service installation guarantee, which gives customers greater certainty about when work will be completed - something the research indicated was critical for their satisfaction. "In the past, NSP couldn't tell customers exactly when the service would be completed. The customer satisfaction research guided that improvement," Peppin says.

The research also uncovered some problems after NSP centralized its phone center. With the business office now handling a wide range of calls in addition to the typical billing-related queries, such as power outages, service installation and tree trimming requests, the volume of calls increased significantly. As a result, customers were experiencing more busy signals, longer time on hold and reduced accessibility.

"The research helped us learn how many call attempts customers would tolerate and how much time they would spend on hold. With those targets, our phone center staff was increased to meet those targets and the research has shown increases in customer satisfaction," Peppin says.

When staff cutbacks resulted in a dip in satisfaction with the tree trimming service, NSP found a way to keep customers happy. By pre-inspecting customers' trimming requests, NSP made better use of busy crews' time and meet customer expectations. "Rather than send out the trimming crew right away, which we couldn't do because of cutbacks, we sent inspectors out to see what, if anything, needed to be done. As a result, satisfaction numbers jumped way up. By checking the situation first and reporting to customers we were able to bring their expectations in line with what the company can provide," Peppin says.

Deregulation

With deregulation of the utilities industry looming, customers may one day have a choice for their source of power. And once price stops being a differentiator between providers, things like stellar customer service will emerge as the critical factors in attracting and keeping customers. "Deregulation is on the horizon and how we meet our customers' needs will determine how successful we are when it occurs," Peppin says. "Our research helps us make sure we're meeting those needs."