Piedmont Natural Gas ignites community connections through reliable energy solutions 

As a subsidiary of Duke Energy, one of America’s largest energy holding companies, Piedmont Natural Gas (Piedmont) stands as a trusted natural gas provider serving residential and commercial customers in the Carolinas and Tennessee. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Piedmont operates with the majority of its workforce spread across its service regions. The company sells, installs, and maintains natural gas appliances and equipment for both homes and businesses, in addition to providing repair plans for its clients. Brian Weisker, President of Piedmont and Senior Vice President at Duke Energy, discusses the division’s background. 

“Our natural gas business, of which Piedmont Natural Gas is a part, is the oldest division within Duke Energy. In terms of structure, Duke Energy serves as the parent company, with Piedmont Natural Gas operating under its umbrella. Additionally, Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Kentucky operate as gas distribution companies within the organization. 

“The oldest segment of Duke Energy dates back to 1837 when the Cincinnati Gas Light & Coke Co. was established. This lineage eventually led to the formation of Duke Energy Ohio and later Duke Energy Kentucky. Meanwhile, Piedmont was founded in 1950. Interestingly, Piedmont’s history comes full circle as it acquired former manufactured gas plants in Spartanburg, South Carolina, from then-Duke Power, which is now Duke Energy. This acquisition marked the inception of Piedmont, as the company purchased these assets from then-Duke Power and converted the former manufactured gas systems into a natural gas distribution network. Throughout the years, Piedmont has expanded through various acquisitions to become the entity it is today,” he begins. 

Focusing specifically on Piedmont, Brian highlights the suite of services the company offers. “At our core, we function as a Local Distribution Company (LDC) that specializes in delivering natural gas to a diverse range of customers, spanning from residential and small-to-medium businesses, all the way up to commercial, industrial, and power generation facilities. Within Piedmont, our offerings include the Home Protection Plan, which provides customers with warranties for appliances and assets. Alongside that, our Service Plus Program handles the installation of gas hot water heaters and ranges, along with heating logs, all under the Piedmont brand. For instance, if a customer requires a new hot water heater, we can give them an estimate and carry out the installation for them. This segment represents the non-regulated aspect of our business. Another noteworthy initiative is the Green Edge Program, where customers have the opportunity to purchase carbon offsets for the natural gas they consume. By signing up for Green Edge, customers can opt to buy these offsets in installments, adding only a small amount to their monthly bill. The revenue generated is then used to obtain carbon offsets, effectively counterbalancing the emissions associated with their gas consumption,” he enlightens. 

Through these offerings and initiatives, Piedmont strives to make every customer satisfied with their outcome. These efforts were recently recognized when the company was named number one in customer satisfaction with residential natural gas service in the South among large utilities by the J.D. Power Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study for the third year in a row. Brian lays out Piedmont’s strategy for maintaining consistently high scores in this area. “To us, delivering customer satisfaction hinges on every interaction we have with customers, from the call center and contact center to services like Service Plus. The way we communicate our arrival and keep customers informed during outages as well as the professionalism of our field technicians all play a crucial role. While we do not promote this methodology externally, we adhere to what we call EASE: being Experts in the way we interact with customers, showing Appreciation to our customers when delivering a service to them, guaranteeing Safety in our operations for both customers and employees, and striving to be Easy to do business with. To achieve this, we conduct surveys to gather feedback from customers. When we receive comments highlighting areas for improvement, we address these through enhancements in processes, procedures, and technology. Our goal is to ensure that every interaction with our customers is of the highest standard.

“Within our natural gas business unit, we have a dedicated team for continuous improvement, which is responsible for enhancing processes and efficiencies. Some of our initiatives are not only geared toward driving efficiencies but also fostering positive interactions with our customers. For example, we introduced an application for employees’ handheld phones for responding to customer outages. The idea behind it was to streamline our processes, particularly in swiftly shutting off and restoring gas meters during outages, ultimately leading to a more efficient and less time consuming outcome for customers. Moreover, this tool enabled us to automate communication. If an excavation were to damage our pipeline and affect 100 customers, we could use this tool to instantaneously notify them through various communication channels like email, text, or phone, and keep them updated until their gas service is restored,” he continues. 

Maintaining a culture centered on customer satisfaction and effective communication across the business is imperative for Piedmont. As such, it is crucial that every team member embraces a customer-centric approach and attitude in their interactions. “Among our top strategic priorities is cultivating a happy and loyal customer base while also fostering a positive work environment, both of which are interconnected. Our culture emphasizes the understanding that gas is not a necessity for many of our customers, as they could choose an all-electric setup if they wanted to. Therefore, we have to excel in customer satisfaction and ensure that our clients continue to choose our product. I believe that this customer-centric outlook is ingrained in our DNA and drives our positive customer relationships. Creating an environment that our employees find easy to work in and ensuring our customers genuinely want our product is key to our success going forward. To maintain a great workplace, we conduct employee engagement surveys across Duke Energy. We assess the Net Promoter Score from our customers and also measure our employee Net Promoter Score to gather feedback on what we have improved on. This is partly because we understand that a dissatisfied employee generally tends to deliver a less than stellar customer experience,” he ends.  

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