Southern Company earns top EEI customer service award

ATLANTA, March 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has presented Southern Company the 2014 National Key Accounts Customer Service award for Outstanding Customer Service, recognizing the company for its continuing efforts to deliver exceptional customer service and assistance. This marks the 11^th time the Southern Company national accounts organization has received an EEI Key Accounts Customer Service award.

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"Southern Company places our customers at the center of everything we do," said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning. "Our longstanding commitment to serving customers helps drive our overall success."

In addition to the company recognition, Regional Account Manager Janet K. Booker was named one of five industrywide recipients of an individual National Key Accounts Executive Award for Outstanding Customer Service for providing customer service and assistance that goes above and beyond expectations. Booker has represented the company through engagement with national brands in the hospitality, home improvement, health care and discount sectors.

Southern Company's national accounts organization serves more than 120 large, multi-site customers representing approximately 30,000 accounts within the company's four-state service territory, with a focus on building strong relationships and delivering value.

Since its inception in 1988, EEI's National Key Accounts Program has addressed the unique and growing needs of commercial customers with multiple sites or outlets, including chains and franchise operations. Through the National Key Accounts network for electric utilities, these businesses are assigned a single point of contact at each utility. A national accounts manager offers a variety of valuable services, including expediting new service connections, providing information about rates and suggesting ways to improve energy efficiency.

Award recipients were selected in a process that incorporated input from more than 700 national chains. These companies represent a wide variety of industries, and include national brands such as Best Buy, HealthSouth, Staples, Kroger, Publix, The Limited and Walmart. The chains honored six electric utility companies and five utility representatives for their outstanding service.

With 4.4 million customers and nearly 46,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast through its subsidiaries. A leading U.S. producer of clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for energy innovation, excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company and its subsidiaries are leading the nation's nuclear renaissance through the construction of the first new nuclear units to be built in a generation of Americans and are demonstrating their commitment to energy innovation through the development of a state-of-the-art coal gasification plant. Southern Company has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense and G.I. Jobs magazine as a top military employer and listed by DiversityInc as a top company for Blacks. The company received the 2012 Edison Award from the Edison Electric Institute for its leadership in new nuclear development, was named Electric Light & Power magazine's Utility of the Year for 2012 and is continually ranked among the top utilities in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.

SOURCE Southern Company