A consumer satisfaction survey for a power distribution company

What is shaping electric power

Power utilities serve millions of households and businesses, and are judged on reliability, billing accuracy and how well they communicate during outages. Smart meters are changing the relationship.

• Smart meters are changing billing and payment behaviour
• Outage communication strongly affects satisfaction
• Digital payments are replacing counter payments

A state electricity distribution company, working in Uttar Pradesh. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A state electricity distribution company

Sector

Electric power

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Government research, Quantitative research, Offline data collection (CAPI)

The distribution company faced complaints about outages, billing errors and slow service, but it had no consistent measure of consumer satisfaction across its circles. Management wanted evidence to prioritise investments and to track progress after reforms.

• Deliver on the brief: a consumer satisfaction survey for a power distribution company.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of consumers.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of circles.
• Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 10 weeks.

The work focused on 6,000 consumers and 20 circles.

• consumers6,000
• circles20

Audiences we typically reach in electric power

Residential consumersCommercial and industrial consumersSmart-meter usersField and call-centre staffRegulators

Coverage: Uttar Pradesh. Market: India.

• India

A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Household and small business survey
3. 3Circle-level dashboard
4. 4Insight

Interviewers surveyed households, shops and small businesses about supply hours, voltage quality, outage communication, billing accuracy, payment options and complaint handling. The sample covered urban and rural feeders in every circle, and results were shown on a dashboard by circle, consumer category and feeder type.

Government researchQuantitative researchOffline data collection (CAPI)

consumers

6,000

circles

20

• Respondents were selected across Uttar Pradesh using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person on tablets (CAPI), with time and location recorded for every interview.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Interactive dashboard for ongoing tracking

• Billing accuracy and outage communication drove dissatisfaction more than supply hours in urban areas, while rural consumers were most concerned about voltage and evening outages.

Consumers forgave some outages when they were kept informed.

• The company introduced SMS outage alerts, corrected billing processes in the worst-performing circles and set satisfaction targets for circle managers.
• Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.

What we recommended, and the client put into practice

• A second wave a year later showed improvements in the circles where reforms had been implemented.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Evaluation findings with programme recommendations

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: which payment channels do consumers prefer?