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Customer survey: high overall satisfaction but communication and willingness-to-pay for clean energy vary
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Summary
The annual Voice of the Customer survey found generally high satisfaction with DPU services but flagged communication as an area for improvement, low awareness of the county's new app and a mixed willingness to pay for clean-energy investments.
Consultants from Great Blue presented the results of the 2025 Voice of the Customer survey to the Board of Public Utilities on April 2, reporting high overall satisfaction with municipal utility services but noting room to improve customer communication and digital adoption.
"The DPU is performing very well," consultant Catherine Bomer said, summarizing the residential and commercial ratings. The residential survey drew 274 completed responses (margin of error ±5.7 percentage points) and the commercial survey had 21 responses (larger margin of error), both fielded in January and February.
Major findings included strong ratings for service quality and reliability across water, gas and electric services; a net "NP+S" score (advocates plus satisfied customers) of about 80% on the residential side; and relatively higher commercial satisfaction in some categories. Areas with weaker results included communication and awareness: fewer customers reported being aware of or using the county's "Los Alamos Now" app, though those who used it reported high satisfaction.
The survey also included new questions about support for carbon-reduction investments. Bomer said roughly three-quarters of commercial customers and about 60% of residential respondents support the DPU investing in clean energy to reduce CO2 emissions. However, about one-third of respondents in both groups said they were not willing to pay any additional dollars per month on their utility bill for such investments; most residential responders who said they would pay indicated lower-dollar amounts (commonly in $1—$10 per month bands), while some commercial respondents signaled willingness to pay larger monthly amounts.
Consultants recommended stronger outreach and user-experience testing for the Los Alamos Now app, clarifying digital onboarding steps and using targeted communications to build support for clean-energy initiatives. They also noted potential "survey fatigue" after several community surveys and recommended spacing outreach and optimizing recruitment strategies for next year to return to higher response counts.
Why it matters: DPU staff and the Board can use the survey findings to refine communications, prioritize digital self-service improvements and inform outreach tied to possible future rate or program proposals related to clean-energy investments.
Next steps: Great Blue suggested usability testing for the county app, improved communications on clean-energy initiatives and refining survey question ranges (for example, higher payment bands) in future polling to get more granular willingness-to-pay data.
