PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC

For all its hypothetical merits, utility deregulation has not helped the ratepayer. Instead, skyrocketing gas and electric rates have alienated hitherto loyal customers and created a public relations nightmare for utility districts nationwide. Pacific Gas & Electric, Northern California's largest utility and a Greenberg client of longstanding, needed to know how to remedy the PR hit it sustained as a result of the new free market. In-depth interviews and a penchant for reading accurately between the lines revealed a simple truth: customers needed to be reminded that though costs had indeed increased, so too had service, 24/7. J. Walter Thompson parlayed our findings into a series of advertisements that drove that point home. The 2003 annual JD Power survey confirmed a significant improvement in both company image and customer satisfaction.