Virginia Natural Gas Named Utility Business Customer Champion by Cogent Business Study
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Jan. 22, 2020 – Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) is one of 18 utilities designated as a 2019 Utility Business Customer Champion among business customers, an annual honor given to electric, natural gas and combination utilities that exhibit exceptional performance in brand trust, service satisfaction and Product Experience.
As one of the top 18 utilities across the U.S., VNG continues to be an industry leader in business customer engagement and satisfaction, according to the latest Cogent Syndicated study by Escalent™, formerly Market Strategies International.
VNG obtained top-industry scores on the study’s Engaged Customer Relationship (ECR) index, which provides a 360-degree performance review of the utility’s business customer perceptions and experiences.
The business customers of Virginia Natural Gas ranked the utility third among all utilities in the study and second overall in the South Region.
“Providing distinctive customer service to our business partners is key to our mission at Virginia Natural Gas,” said Jim Kibler, VNG president. “We are pleased our customers recognize our efforts to provide them with sound business tools that make doing business with us easier. We will continue to identify better ways to serve our customers while striving to deliver on our promise of being the safest, most customer-focused and reliable natural gas service provider to our community.”
The Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business study from Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, looks at overall business customer engagement performance to measure how engaged customers are with their utility provider.
Escalent conducted the survey from among 14,000 utility business customers who responded to a web-based survey of the 76 largest electric, natural gas and combination utility companies across the country.
Overall, Business Customer Champions were credited with great business community outreach, more communication spending and being easier to do business with by customers, leading to greater utility-business customer relationships.
Earlier in 2019, Virginia Natural Gas received the Top 20 Trusted Business Partners award from Escalent based on local outreach, reputation, customer advocacy, environmental focus, communications effectiveness and brand traits.
For information about Virginia Natural Gas, visit www.virginianaturalgas.com.
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About Virginia Natural Gas
Virginia Natural Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Virginia Natural Gas provides natural gas service to nearly 300,000 customers in southeast Virginia and has been recognized as one of the safest, most reliable and customer-focused natural gas service providers. Consistently ranked in the top quartile for customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates, the company has also been recognized by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy and the Virginia Oil and Gas Association for its safety, community outreach and educational programs, and was named Local Distribution Company for three consecutive years. Virginia Natural Gas has been ranked by its business customers as being one of the most Trusted Business Partners in the utility industry according to Cogent Reports, and as one of the Top Workplaces in Hampton Roads by Inside Business. For more information, visit virginianaturalgas.com and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About Southern Company Gas
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America’s premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.2 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states and approximately 700,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.
Media Contact:
Rick DelaHaya
o: 757.616.7510 | c: 757.323.7366 | rdelahay@southernco.com
