Title
Contract for Customer Satisfaction Research Services (NB)
Staff recommends award of a contract with RKS Research and Consulting for customer satisfaction research services.
Explanation
RKS Research and Consulting has been providing customer satisfaction research and measurement since 2002. RKS was awarded the contract as the best evaluated proposer based upon established award criteria. The customer satisfaction scores provided by RKS are used as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for measuring performance at Gainesville Regional Utilities.
The services RKS provides include monitoring GRU's customer satisfaction performance in the areas of electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater service, billing and payment, pricing, efficiency and conservation, customer service, company image, communications and other services from the perspective of residential and business customers. Uniquely, they also survey residential and business customer's importance rankings and expectations to measure gaps between those expectations and GRU's performance.
The research results also allow GRU to evaluate proposed enhancements to existing programs and assess opportunities to introduce new products and services.
RKS has over one hundred utility clients including Colorado Springs, Portland GE, JEA, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. RKS' officers are Florida based, and have maintained the same rates for GRU for the past nine years. RKS is extending a continuation of the same pricing under a new contract while adding, as in the past year, the additional measurements of importance and expectation measurement.
RKS is the only marketing research firm with experience monitoring utility performance-importance-expectations gaps and in matching those gaps with best practice leaders in other industries. Providing customized changes to questionnaires each month with no extra programming, data analysis or administration fees.
Recommendations
The City Commissio...
Click here for full text