CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – July 15, 2020 – For the second year in a row, Chattanooga Gas has been named one of Escalent’s Most Trusted Business Partners among utilities in its Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ Business study. In the 2020 survey administered by the leading human behavior and analytics firm, Chattanooga Gas received the highest score in the South region among energy service providers and ranked among the top 13 in the nation.
“Customers are at the center of everything we do, and we are honored our team is recognized for its dedication to delivering safe and reliable natural gas to communities we serve,” said Bryan Batson, president of Chattanooga Gas. “During these unprecedented times we have increased support for our customers by voluntarily suspending service disconnections for nonpayment for business and residential accounts, provided energy assistance resources and financial donations to local COVID-19 relief and tornado recovery efforts. This ranking reflects our actions are resonating with customers.”
Escalent noted that customer trust in utilities has hit historic highs amid the industry's response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. During this time, a COVID-19 Business Resource Center was developed to assist commercial customers navigate available resources in a centralized place. In addition, the company’s charitable foundation has given $50,000 to help local nonprofits feed families and aid residents rebuilding following the April natural disaster.
The Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ Business study from Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, measures overall business customer engagement performance based on three core components – brand trust, product experience and service satisfaction. Among the study’s six components that make up the Brand Trust index, customer engagement and business community support saw the greatest increases due to how utilities have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Escalent conducted the survey from among 14,583 utility business customers who responded to the web-based survey of the 77 largest electric, natural gas and combination utility companies across the country. This is the second year that Chattanooga Gas participated in this study, with customers this year awarding the utility a brand trust score of 797 out of 1,000-point maximum scale, a 4-point increase from last year.
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About Chattanooga Gas
Chattanooga Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Chattanooga Gas provides retail natural gas sales and transportation services to approximately 68,000 customers in Hamilton and Bradley counties in southeast Tennessee. The Chattanooga Gas service area includes the communities of Chattanooga, Cleveland, Red Bank, East Ridge, Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain. For more information, please see chattanoogagas.com.
About Southern Company Gas
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America’s premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.2 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states and approximately 700,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.
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Mekka Parish
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