Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. places a high priority on providing excellent customer service. Performance indicators, such as the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's annual staff report on bill collection activities and customer complaints help PP&L identify certain areas needing improvement.

"With customer choice coming in two to five years, we realize PP&L must continue to provide a high level of service to attract and retain customers in a competitive environment," said John R. Menichini, PP&L vice president-Customer Services.

The PUC recently issued a report from the Bureau of Consumer Services on 1995 customer service performance of the state's largest utilities.

Menichini said PP&L looks constantly to improve customer service. It conducts customer research to determine what is important to customers and how well PP&L is meeting their expectations on a variety of service-related matters.

He added that the PUC report helps PP&L assess performance in specific areas of its wide-ranging customer service program. The report addresses the effectiveness of utility procedures for responding to customer complaints, collecting overdue bills and negotiating agreeable payment arrangements with customers who are behind in payments.

For example, the report shows that the rate of justified consumer complaints against PP&L was .07 per 1,000 customers in 1995. That's better than the industry average and one of the lowest rates in the state. At the same time, PP&L has seen decreases in the number of PUC violations and in the amount of money customers owe.

"Those results indicate PP&L handled complaints fairly and properly, and that our procedures for working with customers are good. We have focused on compliance with PUC regulations and have worked with the PUC staff to improve customer service procedures," Menichini said.

"While the number of complaints and payment arrangement requests has increased since we stepped up efforts to collect overdue bills, we believe that how we treat customers and whether their complaints are justified are better measures of customer service than how many complaints we receive," he said.

Menichini added that the 1996 report should show the results of improvements PP&L has made over the past two years in handling payment arrangements and collecting overdue bills.

"We are constantly looking to improve the quality of PP&L's customer service performance," he said. "We will continue to make the changes we need to make in order to be successful."

PP&L serves 1.2 million customers in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania.