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Customer Engagement and Trust: Customers Want Meaningful, Accessible Opportunities to Engage in Utility Decision-Making

Customer Reflections Summary

  1. Despite LADWP meeting its notification requirements, customers remain largely unaware of rate increases or policy changes, leaving them feeling blindsided by decisions that directly affect their household budgets.
  2. Beyond simply receiving notice, customers want a seat at the table: many expressed a desire to be meaningfully consulted, not just informed, when decisions impacting their bills are made.
  3. Customers appreciate in-person and locally accessible engagement in trusted community settings, like churches and community centers, to reach a broader audience.
Listening Session 2
Listening Session at First AME Church

While many participants recognized the importance of LADWP services and shared positive experiences interacting with Customer Service Representatives, they described their engagement as largely limited to resolving immediate needs. They noted few opportunities to understand how LADWP makes decisions that affect their daily lives or to provide input before changes occur. When LADWP showed up in communities with the resources and information to help resolve their issues, customers left feeling satisfied and supported.

Participants frequently noted that greater transparency around utility decision-making would help build trust and allow customers to better understand how LADWP policy or rate changes affect their bills. In several discussions, customers reported they often learn about changes only after they have already taken effect, which creates confusion and frustration. Participants also emphasized the value of engaging directly with the utility in accessible community settings. While noting these limited engagement opportunities, many participants reported positive experiences when in-person engagement with LADWP did occur.

Participants consistently identified in-person, community-based events as the most effective form of engagement. Sam in North Hollywood put it plainly: in-person events are "the best way to get people the help they need — online is difficult at times, but in-person is the best." Three seniors at the same Summit further noted that events like these allow customers to reach LADWP representatives far more quickly than the phone intake process allows. In Lincoln Heights, Holger appreciated LADWP for coming to his neighborhood and suggested LADWP continue to do more of these types of events as a way to learn more about the information and services available:

LADWP’s presence at the Summits also demonstrated the value of accessible, on-the-spot engagement. Customer Service Representatives helped Margarita in Lincoln Heights begin resolving her $2,700 bill on site. Customers who did not know their bill could come in Spanish connected with LADWP staff who made the change immediately. These moments illustrate that when LADWP shows up in communities with both information and the ability to act on it, trust is built quickly and tangibly.

A longtime homeowner in Los Angeles captured the desire for more proactive, community-based engagement: 

“I think probably one of the biggest things is [to] come and be in our community. Come live in our community, come see what goes on… deal with the stuff that we deal with. Be more proactive that way.” 

Pacoima Beautiful asked LADWP to "think of the group as a resource and partner" for distributing program information and conducting community education. Customers and community groups suggested communicating current LADWP partnerships with CBOs to customers more directly, and exploring additional models of community engagement presents a meaningful opportunity to meet customers where they are at. When describing the kind of information and opportunities for engagement they would find most valuable, one resident explained:

“…I don’t need to review their spreadsheets, but I do need to have the comfort that what they’re doing is [part of] a comprehensive, well-thought-out plan… I want to know that it has been thought [through] in terms of these are the steps that have to be taken, these are the considerations, these are the stakeholders. I want the office of the ratepayer advocate. I want them to have a seat at the table because you are on the front line visiting with people like me." 

Ratepayers value ongoing dialogue with LADWP and desire greater opportunities to understand and influence practices that impact their bills and services. Cheryl, who attended the Pacoima Listening Session, shared a similar sentiment for the need for transparency, but also for the importance of accountability to building community-based relationships.

Strengthening accessible, transparent, responsive, and accountable engagement pathways presents a clear opportunity to build trust and enhance the relationship between LADWP and the communities it serves.