POWERGRAMS

CUSTOMER SERVICE Big businesses give company top score in utility study history Big industrial clients include, clockwise from top left: Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Honda plant in Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance and ThyssenKrupp near Mobile. Large business customers have given Alabama Power the highest rating ever for a utility in the annual Customer Value Benchmark study. Alabama Power repeated as the No. 1 company for large businesses in Southern Company's 2013 customer survey, after earning the top spot in 2012 on the back of two straight second place finishes in 2011 and 2010. "All of our employees recognize customers are our No. 1 focus," said Executive Vice President Steve Spencer. "That produces reliable service and satisfied customers, so I'm thrilled to see this recognition for them." The company scored 9.52, higher than the 9.48 from 2012, to edge second place Gulf Power, which scored 9.48 on the 2013 survey. Southern Company was third, followed by Georgia Power and Mississippi Power. NextEra Energy, Entergy, We Energies and Duke Energy rounded out the top quartile among the 21 companies whose customers were surveyed. "This ranking is for every plant employee who keeps the generators humming, every line worker who keeps the juice flowing and every customer service employee who maintains contact with our customers daily," Spencer said. "It's a great accomplishment – two years in a row!" Alabama Power had the top score for four of the eight key components of satisfaction and value. Customer satisfaction was "particularly high" for the automotive and large commercial segments. The study defines large businesses as manufacturers with more than 1 megawatt demand, military bases with more than 1 MW demand, large hospitals (more than 3 MW), major four-year universities and casinos (more than 1 MW). The utilities' scores are from a model that is updated each year based on survey responses. The eight key 2013 drivers of customer satisfaction and value were: cost (28 percent), image (16 percent), reliability (15 percent), efficiency (10 percent), billing (9 percent), outage reporting (9 percent), account manager performance (7 percent) and contact history (7 percent). Alabama Power's score has risen from 8.81 in 2009 to the best score ever in 2013. This year the company had the top score vs. peer utilities in reliability, efficiency, cost and outage reporting. Automotive businesses gave Alabama Power its highest rating at 9.78, followed by large commercial companies (9.65), primary metals (9.5), division accounts (9.42) and chemicals businesses (9.35). Alabama Power was previously ranked first in the Large Business survey in 1997 and 2005. By Chuck Chandler 3

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