In an ongoing effort to regain the public's trust after the widespread power outages caused by Hurricane Beryl last month, CenterPoint Energy has taken the initiative to gather community feedback through a series of open house events. According to a Houston Chronicle report, its first community open house kicked off today at the Tom Bass Community Center. Attendants had the opportunity to interact with different CenterPoint teams and see demonstrations, such as the new outage tracker launched earlier this month.
The outreach is part of CenterPoint's larger post-hurricane strategy, dealing with the fallout from nearly 2.3 million customers losing power during the July heatwave. The energy provider has scheduled 16 open houses throughout 12 counties over the next month. The focus of these events is on showcasing steps the company is taking to improve, including their system reliability and communication post-outages — a significant critique the company faced. "We know we’ve got a long road in front of us in terms of re-earning our community’s trust," CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells said, as featured in the Houston Chronicle's coverage.
Alongside these outreach efforts, CenterPoint has been working towards strengthening the electricity grid, a mission born out of necessity after the hurricane-related criticisms. This Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative has seen the replacement of wooden poles with fiberglass ones and the trimming of vegetation around power lines. Maya Williams, a resident affected by the outages, expressed her frustration to FOX 26 Houston, saying, "We pay too much in electricity for this to be so shaky." Williams, who spent $4,000 on a generator after the outage, reflected a view among residents that the infrastructure improvements were necessary.
Feedback from customers attending the open houses will be invaluable to CenterPoint's improvement plan, as indicated by Alyssia Oshodi, the company's director of communications. "Most importantly, we want to collect their feedback, hear from them on how we can continue to improve," Oshodi told FOX 26 Houston.
An example of customer engagement was the anonymous feedback station, where attendees like Tahita Doyle, a local business owner, could leave their comments on Post-it notes. "I’ll put one or two things on the board," Doyle shared with the Houston Chronicle.
CenterPoint’s promise of better communication was evidenced by the experience of Pablo Sanchez, a Houstonian who, after a vehicle-related incident knocked out his power on August 1, received frequent updates from CenterPoint. "They promised communications, and they’re doing it," Sanchez remarked in the Houston Chronicle's interview. While this is a step in the right direction, the effectiveness of these initiatives will only be measured over time as the company holds more open house events, like the one on Thursday at 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Pasadena Convention Center, and continues to take action on the feedback received from its customers.
