The Customer's Friend

A burned-out light bulb, as Inventor Thomas Edison knew, uses no electricity. Therefore, Tom Edison made it a rule for his power companies to replace burned-out bulbs without charge. It was an invisible cost on the light bill, but it kept the customer happy--and kept him buying Edison's power. Obvious as Edison's wisdom was, it was lost on many of his successors. Almost alone among big utilities, Detroit Edison Co. still gives away light bulbs. Partly because of this and similar consumer service policies, Detroit Edison, already the sixth biggest U.S. power company,* is growing so fast that it can scarcely keep abreast of demand. Last week, by the ice-clogged waters of the St. Clair River, it was rearing the structural steel for a new $95 million power plant, and was already blueprinting another one, equally big, named the River Rouge. Both are part of a four-year, $237 million expansion program which, by 1954, will have boosted Detroit Edison's capacity more than half--to 2,500,000 kilowatts. In ten years, while the number of the company's residential consumers rose by 38%, their consumption of power rose by a whopping 162%.

Troubleshooters. For this, Detroit Edison can thank not only Thomas Edison, but the canniness of the late, Glasgow-born Alex Dow. As Detroit Edison's president for 28 years, Dow was shrewd enough to enlarge the company's policy of giving away free bulbs, set up repair crews to fix electric cords and to repair appliances, all without charge.

Detroit Edison is now bossed by Ohio-born, Cornell-trained Walker Lee Cisler, 54, who joined the company in 1943 as chief engineer, but was grabbed by the War Department to help restore the war-crippled electric systems in the Mediterranean theater. He did such a good job that General Eisenhower took him along to do the same thing in France and Germany. At war's end Cisler got a chance to show what he could do at Detroit Edison. In three years he moved up to executive vice president, and then into the top job.

Cisler, well-aware that in many cities the utility is a favorite whipping boy, could appreciate the tremendous good will Detroit Edison had built with its customer services. To look after them, more than 500 of the company's 11,625 employees are kept busy; 47 service trucks cruise the Detroit area night & day to replace lamps and fuses, fix appliances, install lead-in wires for electric stoves, etc. For new homes the crews install up to 40 light bulbs free, thereafter replace any that burn out, requiring only the old bulb or the metal end in exchange.

Distance Shooters. In contrast, the shortsighted indifference to customers of some utilities in other U.S. cities also means smaller per capita electric sales. New York's massive Consolidated Edison Co. (no kin) sells less than 1,200 kilowatt hours per year to its average home customer v. Detroit Edison's 2,168. One-third of Detroit Edison's customers use electric stoves v. 22.8% average for all U.S. utilities. President Cisler concedes that the cost of his "free" services (about 50-c- a month per customer) gets added to the bill, but Detroit Edison's rates ($3.02 per 100 kilowatt hours) are still cheaper than other big cities such as New York, Boston or Pittsburgh, where no such services are provided.*

While Detroit Edison's farsightedness has paid off, President Cisler and Chairman Prentiss M. Brown, ex-U.S. Senator from Michigan, are already looking 30 years ahead. Says Cisler: "Our plans call for more than tripling our capacity by 1982."

* The first five, according to number of customers served: Consolidated Edison Co., New York; Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco; Public Service Electric & Gas Co., Newark; Commonwealth Edison Co., Chicago; Southern California Edison Co., Los Angeles.

* In the New York area customers are actually discouraged from installing electric stoves because Con Edison only brings the heavy-voltage lead-in as far as the property; the customer has to pay a private electrician up to about $150 to bring it the rest of the way in. Con Edison, selling both electricity and gas, makes no move to encourage a switch to electric cooking.

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