July 7, 2021
Businesses’ trust their utilities significantly more after utilities stepped in to support local economies and communities during the pandemic. About one in three (36%) businesses says its utility is a trusted adviser and partner in their success, and over half (52%) are aware of their utility’s efforts to support the local economy. This increased support pushed the utility business customer Brand Trust Index score higher by 29 points, reaching a historic high of 782 this year (on a 1,000-point scale). This information is from the Cogent Syndicated 2021 Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business study by Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics advisory firm.
The Brand Trust Index is a composite score of utility performance on customer focus, business community support, communications effectiveness, reliable quality, environmental dedication and company reputation. Among these six factors, Business Community Support and Company Reputation have increased the most (each up 31 points) over the last year as businesses place more value on their utility’s local dedication. As a result, utility business customer advocacy has increased to an all-time high as well, with 94% of businesses saying they made a positive comment on behalf of their utility in the past year.
“Building brand equity as trusted advisers during the last year is huge for the utility industry. Only trusted brands have the ability to influence businesses to adopt innovative programs and support investments in new energy technology,” said Chris Oberle, senior vice president at Escalent. “Building strong, trusted relationships with business customers also allows utilities to gain business community support and advocacy for their efforts. In fact, 78% of businesses say they would pay 10% more for their utility to advance its clean energy, innovative offerings and outreach objectives.”
Additional insights from the study include:
- There is a significant 142-point gap between the most and least trusted utilities
- Minority-owned businesses have a very high 816 Brand Trust Index score.
- Fewer than half of businesses (42%) would support a rate increase to improve reliability, safety or service.
- Key account managers increase customer trust, as the average Brand Trust score is 817 when businesses are assigned an account manager.
- Two in three businesses (65%) are interested in solar and battery storage and 27% of those with high Brand Trust prefer their utility as the provider of these offerings.
- Utilities should focus on small business customers, as larger businesses tend to have higher trust and use more consumption management and alternative energy offerings than smaller businesses.
- Service interactions in newer digital channels like mobile, social, chat and text for business customers have increased 11 percentage points this year to 66%, as phone service interactions have increased only four percentage points to 54%, marking the first time businesses had more digital service than phone service with utilities.
- Digital service scores 837 on the study’s Customer & Field Service Index while phone service posts scoring of 826.
Escalent congratulates the 2021 Most Trusted Business Partner utilities. These 24 utilities are industry leaders in developing trust among their business customers.
| Cogent Syndicated 2021 Trusted Business Partner Utilities | |
| AEP Ohio | Florida Power & Light |
| BGE | Georgia Power |
| CenterPoint Energy – South | Nicor Gas |
| Chattanooga Gas Company | NV Energy |
| Con Edison | Public Service Company of Oklahoma |
| Consumers Energy | Puget Sound Energy |
| Dominion Energy North Carolina | Southern California Edison |
| Dominion Energy Virginia | TECO Peoples Gas |
| DTE Energy | TECO Tampa Electric |
| Duke Energy Florida | Virginia Natural Gas |
| Duke Energy Progress | We Energies |
| Entergy | Xcel Energy – West |
The following tables reflect regional peer benchmark Brand Trust scores among the 79 utilities surveyed. These scores reflect the amount of trust business customers have with each utility.
| East Region Electric Utilities Brand Trust Business Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Brand trust score | |
| Con Edison | 833 | |
| BGE | 814 | |
| PPL Electric Utilities | 789 | |
| PSE&G | 788 | |
| National Grid | 786 | |
| PECO | 784 | |
| NYSEG | 774 | |
| Jersey Central Power & Light | 767 | |
| Appalachian Power | 754 | |
| PSEG Long Island | 746 | |
| West Penn Power | 744 | |
| Penelec | 731 | |
| Eversource | 718 | |
| Midwest Region Electric Utilities Brand Trust Business Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Brand trust score | |
| We Energies | 856 | |
| AEP Ohio | 855 | |
| Consumers Energy | 827 | |
| DTE Energy | 822 | |
| Ameren Missouri | 793 | |
| Indiana Michigan Power | 782 | |
| Alliant Energy | 781 | |
| Duke Energy Midwest | 779 | |
| AES Ohio | 774 | |
| MidAmerican Energy | 772 | |
| Ameren Illinois | 771 | |
| AES Indiana | 771 | |
| Evergy | 766 | |
| Wisconsin Public Service | 763 | |
| NIPSCO | 758 | |
| OPPD | 754 | |
| Xcel Energy – Midwest | 752 | |
| Ohio Edison | 751 | |
| ComEd | 734 | |
| The Illuminating Company | 719 | |
| South Region Electric Utilities Brand Trust Business Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Brand trust score | |
| Dominion Energy Virginia | 815 | |
| Duke Energy Progress | 815 | |
| Duke Energy Florida | 802 | |
| Public Service Company of Oklahoma | 801 | |
| Georgia Power | 800 | |
| Entergy | 799 | |
| Florida Power & Light | 798 | |
| TECO Tampa Electric | 797 | |
| Duke Energy Carolinas | 791 | |
| Kentucky Utilities | 790 | |
| CPS Energy | 782 | |
| El Paso Electric | 779 | |
| Southwestern Electric Power Company | 774 | |
| Alabama Power | 773 | |
| Mississippi Power | 764 | |
| OG&E | 763 | |
| Louisville Gas & Electric | 762 | |
| Dominion Energy South Carolina | 742 | |
| JEA | 741 | |
| Gulf Power | 714 | |
| West Region Electric Utilities Brand Trust Business Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Brand trust score | |
| Xcel Energy – West | 847 | |
| NV Energy | 811 | |
| Puget Sound Energy | 808 | |
| Southern California Edison | 800 | |
| Los Angeles Department of Water & Power | 794 | |
| Salt River Project | 791 | |
| APS | 787 | |
| SMUD | 779 | |
| Idaho Power | 779 | |
| PNM | 776 | |
| PG&E | 772 | |
| SDG&E | 769 | |
| Portland General Electric | 765 | |
| Pacific Power | 761 | |
| Colorado Springs Utilities | 757 | |
| NorthWestern Energy | 744 | |
| Rocky Mountain Power | 741 | |
| Natural Gas Utilities Brand Trust Business Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Brand trust score | |
| TECO Peoples Gas | 838 | |
| CenterPoint Energy – South | 805 | |
| Dominion Energy North Carolina | 803 | |
| Virginia Natural Gas | 799 | |
| Nicor Gas | 786 | |
| Chattanooga Gas Company | 785 | |
| Dominion Energy Ohio | 784 | |
| CenterPoint Energy – Midwest | 778 | |
| Dominion Energy West | 759 | |
About Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business
Escalent conducted surveys among 15,669 business electric and natural gas utility customers of the 79 largest US utility companies (based on customer counts). The sample design uses a combination of quotas and weighting based on size of businesses surveyed to ensure a balanced sample of each evaluated utility. Utilities within each benchmark segment are assigned equal weight to balance the influence of each utility’s customers on survey results. The Brand Trust Index score is a composite based upon consumer ratings across six factors. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.
Click below to learn more about the full report.
