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2025 Customer Experience & External Affairs Highlights

Customer service staff member with customer

Overview/Highlights 

Customer Experience & External Affairs (CXEA) helps make utility services more accessible, equitable, and responsive. Guided by our North Star commitment ensuring customers and the community experience compassion and equity in action, CXEA creates meaningful interactions that help customers feel understood, valued, and empowered. CXEA includes Customer Services, Communications, Community & Government Relations, and Market Strategy & Analytics. Together, these teams support hundreds of thousands of customer interactions each month, strengthen community relationships, drive customer experience improvements, and support employee giving and volunteerism.  

2025 Major Accomplishments

  • Customer satisfaction, overall, remained strong, with an average score of 8.1 out of 10 in the Residential Customer Satisfaction Survey.  
  • Customers rated TPU employees highly for knowledge and professionalism, with a mean score of 8.4, based on the survey. 
  • TPU ranked in the top national quartile for nearly every measure included in the Residential Customer Satisfaction Survey. 
  • Enrollment in utility assistance programs increased by 2,083 customers, bringing total participation to more than 15,000 customers. 
  • Sponsored 57 nonprofit community events and programs. 
  • Partnered with Tacoma Public Schools to support energy education and future workforce development through Physics Learning Day and shared with teachers how Tacoma Power manages our energy sources portfolio and plan for the future. 
  • Helped create a Tacoma-specific Energy Planning curriculum now used in Tacoma Public Schools physics classes. 
  • Developed RailCards, an educational card game of building trains, that introduces students to Tacoma Rail. The game became popular with Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCA. 
  • Expanded the YMCA x TPU Explorers program following a successful pilot at three elementary schools. The program was so successful, TPU returned in the fall with more activities and a journal for students.  
  • Successfully implemented the new SAP Service Cloud, a customer information system, to replace obsolete technology and improve customer service capabilities. 
  • Achieved more than 7.2 million social media impressions, a 42.6% increase from 2024. 
  • Generated more than 551,000 social media video views, a 74.6% increase from 2024. 

Customer Services continued to improve customer satisfaction and service delivery based on the customer survey. The utility also enrolled more customers into assistance programs. 

2025 Highlights

  • Customer Satisfaction: 4.88 (↑ from 4.35) 
  • Ease of Doing Business: 92% rated TPU as easy or very easy to do business 
  • Survey Participation: 15.06% (↑ from 13.1%)  
  • First Call Resolution: 84.6% (↑ 5.48%)  
  • Utility Assistance Enrollment: More than 15,612 customers (↑ 14.8%) 
  • Bill Assistance Distributed: $9.2 M 
  • Customers Served In-Person: 37,090 
  • Customer Calls Taken: 245,975 

Communications supported TPU programs through strategic communications, creative services, digital engagement, and customer outreach. 

2025 Highlights

  • Completed 711 graphic design, editing, and content support requests. 
  • Saved $360,000 through the redesign of the U* – Utilities & You newsletter.  
  • Earned an Award of Merit from the American Public Power Association for the U* – Utilities & You customer newsletter. 
  • Reached more than 7.2 million people through social media (↑ 42.6%)  
  • Recorded nearly 6 million visits to MyTPU.org. 

Market Strategy & Analytics advanced customer experience strategy, business customer support, and performance analytics. 

2025 Highlights

  • Began reorganizing commercial Key Account and Small/Medium Business customer segments. 
  • Created and launched a Customer Experience North Star training video with an organizational-wide goal having all TPU employees trained. 

Community & Government Relations strengthened partnerships with policymakers, educational institutions, and community organizations. 

2025 Highlights

  • Expanded youth outreach efforts, engaging more than 4,000 students, educators and caregivers. 
  • Sponsored 57 non-profit community events and programs. 
  • Advanced TPU priorities related to clean energy, water supply, utility affordability, infrastructure investment, and grid reliability. 
  • Contributed more than $275,000 for community organizations through employee volunteer activities. 

Strategic Objective Areas

CXEA continued to improve customer communications, digital services, and assistance programs. 

  • Increased MyAccount adoption as more customers used the online portal to manage bills, monitor usage, enroll in paperless billing, and receive outage notifications. 
  • Residential satisfaction survey results identified affordability as customers’ most significant concern, although most customers continue to pay bills on time. 
  • Used customer journey mapping and data analysis to identify improvements to the Bill Credit Assistance Plan and strengthen support for customers experiencing financial hardship. 

CXEA continued to support employee learning, collaboration, and professional development.  

  • Continued integration of the Business Solutions Office into the Business Customer Resources team. 
  • Enhanced daily performance scorecards, increasing visibility into customer experience outcomes. 

CXEA focused on operational improvements that make customer interactions easier and more efficient. 

  • Increased paperless billing enrollment to 47% that resulted in more than $159,250 in savings. 

Living Our TPU Values

CXEA incorporates safety into daily operations, from office ergonomics to community outreach and field activities, ensuring employees can serve customers safely and effectively.  

  • Approximately 20 field and mail services employees received soft tissue training and exercises in 2025 to prevent injuries.  

Helped develop the Public Utility Board’s Customer and Community Guiding Principle, reinforcing TPU’s commitment to inclusive and equitable service. 

CXEA connects customers with resources that improve affordability and access to utility services. 

  • Assisted more than 9,860 customers with electric bill assistance. 
  • Assisted more than 3,100 customers with water bill assistance. 
  • More than 200 TPU employees volunteered to support educational programming. 
  • Selected a platform and system integrator for the Telephony Modernization Program. 

CXEA supports TPU operations during major incidents and service events by providing timely, accurate information to customers, community members, and policymakers. 

  • During December’s severe weather events, Communications, Government Relations, and Account Executives partnered with Tacoma Water and Tacoma Power to keep customers, the Public Utility Board, and elected officials informed and support service restoration efforts. 
  • TPU’s 2025 Water Quality Report received a Gold Award from the MarComm Awards. 

Financial Summary 

CXEA is a service division funded through assessments from Tacoma Power, Tacoma Water, and Tacoma Rail. The Environmental Services department of the City of Tacoma General Government funds a portion of Customer Services. Its financials are included within those divisions’ reports and not separately.   

Conclusion 

CXEA remains focused on delivering excellent service and an outstanding customer experience. In 2025, the division strengthened customer support programs, expanded community engagement, modernized customer service tools, and increased digital adoption. As we move into 2026, we will continue using customer feedback, performance data, and community partnerships to make every interaction more meaningful, equitable, and effective.