A MESSAGE FROM YOUR GENERAL MANAGER/CEO

GARY RAYBON

Our Best for the People We Serve

At Wharton County Electric Cooperative, we care about the people we serve.

That service has historically resulted in high marks in customer service surveys for electric cooperatives, which consistently deliver a higher level of service than other electric utilities nationwide. Research conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index in 2020 shows that members rated co-ops higher than did customers of investor-owned and municipal utility companies.

But the ACSI Energy Utilities Report revealed a distressing trend for energy utilities overall. Overall customer satisfaction with the energy utilities sector declined, even for electric cooperatives. 

Challenges since 2019 likely affected people’s opinions of their utilities. Many have been hit hard by unprecedented natural disasters, including wildfires, hurricanes and winter storms, not to mention a pandemic that upended our day-to-day operations. Meanwhile, consumers, including co-op members, are expressing their desires for cleaner energy, smarter technology and energy-saving practices, according to the ACSI. 

Electric cooperatives still rank higher in terms of customer satisfaction than their investor-owned and municipal counterparts. Cooperatives’ customer satisfaction score declined 2.7% to a score of 73 out of 100 compared to a score of 72 for investor-owned and municipal utilities, according to the report.

Co-op members across the country have historically given their local co-op employees high marks for understanding their needs and having the flexibility to address their individual concerns. Co-op employees also typically get good grades for delivering state-of-the-art service and for caring about members and the communities they serve. 

In years past cooperatives took the lead compared to their competitors by a margin of 8–9 points. In 2019, WCEC conducted a member satisfaction survey resulting in a ACSI Score of 91, well above the national cooperative average.

But at WCEC, we always want to do better. We want not just to be better than our utility neighbors but better for the sake of our members—the people we serve.

The trust and loyalty electric cooperatives have earned over our long existence give us the ability to continue to work for your best interests. WCEC staff, management and directors are united in our desire to provide you with the best service available anywhere in the country, even if we have to work a little harder to get your approval. 

The ACSI report says co-op members want better service, easy-to-understand bills and faster outage restoration. The feedback also shows that although cooperatives support their communities and provide energy efficiency information, members want more.

We encourage you to reach out to us when you have suggestions or comments about what would help us serve your needs. We know that to be a great utility company, we have to continue to make people our first priority. We care about you. Let us know what you think.