Introduction

New York energy provider Consolidated Edison maintains a continuing focus on providing top-notch service to its customers. Accordingly, the company advanced a Customer Outreach and Education campaign to promote customer understanding of various energy initiatives. Was the campaign successful? Did it effectively deliver its intended messages?

To help answer these questions, Con Edison requested the assistance of CRA, Inc. in measuring the extent to which customers understood, and were aware of, the beliefs promoted by the outreach and education efforts.

The CRA solution

CRA designed a survey to measure the effectiveness of existing information vehicles and inform future outreach and education strategies. The assessment evaluated customer awareness and understanding by addressing such questions as: How many people did the campaign reach? What do they remember about what they were told? To what degree did customer attitudes and behavior change after being reached?

The survey concentrated on four key campaign elements: (1) advice on how to use energy more efficiently and save money; (2) the supply of electricity in New York, and Con Edison’s efforts to keep the power on; (3) Con Edison’s efforts to keep energy costs down; and (4) the opportunity to buy electricity from a supplier other than Con Edison.

After data were collected, CRA created a report assessing customer needs and outlining the impact of the campaign on customers’ attitudes and behavior. The report presented the findings graphically and textually, along with conclusions and recommendations to guide future campaigns. It also included verbatim comments taken from the interviews.

For more information on CRA’s Awareness & Understanding Study, please contact Jan Lee at 610-644-5597, extension 222.