In J.D. Power's annual water utility regional customer satisfaction study, San Antonio Water System ranked third in its region and ahead of Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston — despite overall national declines in water utility satisfaction.
The 2022 U.S. Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study gauges the satisfaction of residential customers of 90 utilities that provide water to 400,000 or more customers. These are in eight geographic regions, large and midsize, in the Midwest, Northeast, South and West. SAWS came in third in the South-Large category.
San Antonio's water utility came in with a rating of 752 on J.D. Power's 1,000-point scale, third in the South-Large region and behind only Miami-Dade County with 766 and Gwinnett County, Georgia, with 763 points. SAWS saw an increase of three points from its No. 6 ranking of 749 in 2021.
This year, SAWS scored ahead of the City of Dallas (744 points), City of Fort Worth (721), City of Houston (716) and Austin Water (699)
SAWS Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Gavino Ramos said that SAWS worked hard during the pandemic to assist customers with budget-friendly payment plans and the disbursement of millions of dollars in ARPA funds to reduce or eliminate water balances.
And when Winter Storm Uri delivered a second "gut punch," he added, SAWS froze the following month's bills for customers affected by large leaks due to broken pipes.
"We partnered with a foundation to raise money to help our most vulnerable residents pay for plumbing affairs they couldn't afford," Ramos said.
SAWS has also continued to expand the number of electronic tools it uses to communicate with customers, and in the spring installed new electronic meters to help customers more efficiently control their water usage and bills.
Despite SAWS' strong showing, the study found customer satisfaction in water utilities nationally is on the decline.
For the first time in six years, the report found declining satisfaction in water systems across the board, with customers expressing concerns about quality, reliability, conservation, billing and payment, communications and customer services. In general, communications and pricing were the most frequent concerns cited by residential customers.
Key findings were that customer satisfaction has dropped as prices have risen. The 2022 average rating for residential water utilities is 731, down six points from last year's score as average monthly bills have increased by $5.73 since 2020.
The highest satisfaction scores came from water utilities that provide strong electronic communications to customers, the report noted.
