NFEC announces market research survey looking for member feedback
Cooperative Insights in coordination with Northfork Electric Cooperative and Touchstone Energy has initiated a market research study to better understand member perceptions toward natural disaster responses and risk mitigation.
Member feedback from this study will assist Northfork Electric Cooperative and Touchstone Energy:
• Understand members’ severe event experience
• Evaluate electric cooperative’s performance and communication during the outage caused by the severe event
• Understand members’ preference regarding outage communication and valued information regarding outage
• Gain insights on members’ perceptions toward severe event preparedness at all levels and their expectation for the electric cooperative during severe event
• Estimate members’ interests in outage alert service
Target Audience & Member Communications
A Front Porch Forum is a new type of online research that provides a small group of members the ability to participate in a moderated discussion about the topics outlined above. Approximately 30 members are invited to participate in the online session that typically lasts up to one week.
This year’s project targets residential members through a mix of online activities and discussion board questions. Members are sent an email invitation which includes a link to participate in the activities. At the end of the research project, members that have completed the required number of activities will receive an incentive ($25 Amazon e-gift card). The total time commitment from the members selected to participate is estimated at 30-45 minutes.
Interview Schedule
Cooperative Insights will release a screener survey to members Monday, September 12 followed by the formal email invitation to participate in the online activities to targeted members on Monday, September 19. The activities will be available for comment during the week of September 19 through September 25. Members can complete the activities on various connected devices including smartphones, tablets, desktop, and laptop computers.
Reports and Deliverables
At the conclusion of the research project, Northfork Electric Cooperative and Touchstone Energy management will receive a report summarizing the results and highlighting their cooperative’s findings. In addition to cooperative specific results, a list of member comments will be provided as part of the report. Cooperative Insights anticipates the final report will be distributed approximately two to three weeks after the conclusion of the data collection period.