Washington State’s Mason PUD 3 recently completed a customer survey, with nearly 1,500 residential customers sharing their thoughts, “giving us valuable insight into your experiences and priorities,” it said on Oct. 1.
Overall, customers gave the PUD an average positive rating of 83.3% across 12 key questions. The highest marks went to quick outage restoration and reliability, while the lowest scores were related to its program and service offerings, and helping customers use less electricity. Even in those areas, PUD 3 rated better than the U.S. average on all 12 categories and came in just below the Washington state average on only one question.
When it comes to staying informed, customers said their favorite communication tools are the online outage map, email updates, and the PUD 3 website (pud3.org). The most important topics customers want to hear about are outage and power restoration, electricity rates, and utility programs and services. "Our future communications will reflect more of this information as requested," the PUD said.
Looking ahead, nearly one-third of customers plan to purchase an electric vehicle, and about one-quarter are considering installing solar panels. "That shift in technology and energy use helps guide our planning for the future," the PUD noted.
Customers also ranked the most important priorities for PUD 3 as follows:
1. Cost of electricity
2. Outage management and reliability
3. Customer service
4. Financial responsibility
5. Clean energy
The PUD said it is encouraged to see strong support for fiber broadband expansion, with 85.6% of customers very or somewhat supportive.
"These results help shape how we serve you today and prepare for the future. We appreciate your input and look forward to continuing to provide safe, reliable, economical, sustainable, and community-focused service," it said.
