Nashville Electric Service has earned top honors from the Public Relations Society of America for its new web site designed by Apogee Interactive, Inc. Selected Best New Media in PRSA Nashville's 20th Annual Parthenon Awards competition, the web site (www.nespower.com) demonstrates a creative and unconventional use of technology for marketing and external communications.
Working with APOGEE Interactive, the a provider of online solutions to the energy industry, Nashville Electric Service provides its 348,000 customers with a friendly, easy-to-use web site packed with valuable information specific to their location including a live power outage map, an interactive community events calendar, current news, job opportunities, tree trimming schedule, up-to-date rate information and an online bid center for vendors.
Nashville Electric Service is one of the 12 largest public electric utilities in the nation. "Our web site serves as a vital means of communicating with our customers and provides fast and easy tools for customers to communicate with us," explained Laurie Parker, Nashville Electric Service's media coordinator. "We offer both an English and a Spanish version of our web site so virtually any of our customers with access to the web can apply for service, pay their bill, access community events, check for power outages in their neighborhood, and learn about energy saving ideas for the home or business."
The quality of the NES web site allows the utility to reduce costs while increasing customer service and satisfaction. During heavy storms the web sites outage map has recorded as many as 2700 unique visitors reducing calls to the call center while providing customers with immediate answers. More than 85% of customers report they are satisfied with Nashville Electric Service according to the company's 2006 Residential Customer Expectation Survey. In addition, NES has ranked in the top five utilities by JD Power customer service surveys for the past two years.
