Jackson EMC placed second in the 2016 J.D. Power and Associates Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study’s Cooperative Segment. It was the first time J.D. Power broke cooperatives out of their respective geographic categories, meaning Jackson EMC was ranked for the first time with large cooperatives from across the nation.

Jackson EMC’s Index Score of 763 was a significant increase from 2015, rising 33 points in the ranking, and was a close second behind first place winner SECO Energy of Florida, with a score of 769. SECO’s score was the highest ranking in the nation among all utilities surveyed. Two other Georgia EMCs helped round out the top five, with Sawnee EMC in fourth place and Walton EMC in fifth. Virginia’s NOVEC placed third behind Jackson EMC with a ranking of 748.

Jackson EMC’s index score remains well above the national average of 680, and Above Georgia Power’s ranking of 712.

The study, now in its 18th year, measures customer satisfaction with electric utility companies by examining six factors: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; communications; and customer service. The study found that overall satisfaction among residential customers of electric utilities has increased substantially over the last several years, but the improvements in the electric utility industry are not keeping pace with those in a variety of other service industries. “The lesson that utilities can learn from other high-performing service providers is that to excel you need a culture that puts customers and employees first,” said John Hazen, senior director of the utility practice at J.D. Power. “And because customer expectations continue to increase, you need to have a mindset of continuous improvement to keep up.”The high customer satisfaction ranking comes on the heels of a separate J.D. Power study on Corporate Citizenship released in June that spotlighted Jackson EMC’s Corporate Citizenship satisfaction. In that study, J.D. Power found Jackson EMC had the highest Corporate Citizenship Index (727) in their electric residential study.