Nicor Gas named one of the Most Trusted Business Partners among utilities in national survey

NAPERVILLE, Ill. – July 15, 2020 – Nicor 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 by the leading human behavior and analytics firm, Nicor Gas received the second highest score in the Midwest region among energy service providers and ranked among the top 13 in the nation.

“Our customers’ well-being is central to every decision we make at Nicor Gas, especially as the impacts of the ongoing pandemic continue to unfold,” said Melvin D. Williams, president of Nicor Gas. “That commitment is certainly reflected in these results. We are honored by this designation and will continue to identify even more ways to serve our customers while delivering the clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas that our communities deserve.”

Escalent noted that customer trust in utilities has hit historic highs amid the industry's response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In recognition of the financial hardship caused by the pandemic, Nicor Gas voluntarily suspended service disconnections for non-payment March 14 for both residential and commercial customers. The utility continues to help customers who are facing financial hardships by connecting them to energy assistance resources, offering more flexible payment plans and providing energy-saving information to help keep bills manageable as the pandemic continues to impact Illinoisans.

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 Nicor Gas participated in this study, with customers awarding the utility a brand trust score this year of 784 out of 1,000-point maximum scale, a 38-point increase from last year.