ATLANTA – Southern Company received the highest rating for customer satisfaction for a utility and ranked third highest among all companies, according to the results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which measures satisfaction of residential customers across a wide variety of industries. Southern Company received the highest score of any of the 20 utilities in the study.

“Southern Company has long realized that our financial success is based on the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers. Our continual focus on improving the quality of service we provide to our customers while keeping our price competitive is represented by the ACSI results,” said Barbara Hingst, Southern Company vice president for strategic market planning.

The results just released updated satisfaction scores for nine groups: airlines, television, hospitals, hotels, motion picture studios, parcel delivery, US Postal Service, publishing, and electric utilities. In terms of levels, the highest scoring companies were Federal Express (83, unchanged), UPS (81, up 2.5 percent), and Southern Company (80, up 2.6 percent).

“Southern Company has improved its ACSI from 78 to 80 over the years and has never scored below 76. It is also one of the most profitable utilities,” said Professor Claes Fornell of the University of Michigan Business School, which through its National Quality Research Center developed the methodology used.

Additional details on the results from the study can be found at http://www.bus.umich.edu/research/nqrc/Q1-2000.html.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a national economic indicator of customer satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available to household consumers in the United States. The Index is produced through a partnership among the University of Michigan Business School, the American Society for Quality, and the CFI Group.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an international energy company that operates more than 48,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity worldwide. It is the largest producer of electricity in the United States and one of the world’s largest independent power producers. Southern Company subsidiaries and their affiliates serve 12 million retail customers worldwide and millions more through the wholesale market. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.

Through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, Southern Company has operations in 13 countries on five continents and has a growing presence in North America with assets in the Northeast, the Midwest, California and Texas. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services in the United States and Europe and offers Southern LINC wireless telecommunications.