2017 Award Recipient

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services

Highlights

• Reliability is a key performance measure and a key 

success factor for BTES. With new technologies and 

innovations, BTES continues to decrease outage minutes 

with a strenuous goal of less than 60 minutes per customer 

per year, which it has exceeded for the past three years. 

This benchmark far outperforms the industry, regional, 

and best-in-class averages (all 90-100 minutes). With the 

use of its innovative Automated Switching System, 

BTES saved its customers an additional 46 minutes 

per customer of outage time in 2016.

• Results for the Average Service Availability Index (ASAI), 

a key measure of BTES’s preparedness, have outperformed 

all utility, region, and class comparisons, achieving a rate of 

99.99 percent from 2014 through 2016.

• BTES has continuously saved money for its customers, 

enabling them to keep approximately $70 million in their 

pockets over the last 40 years. The organization considers 

this measure a key financial success factor.

• The company’s employee retention rate has increased to 

100 percent, while the industry benchmark is 91 percent 

and the national industry average is 82 percent.

 

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES) is an electricity and fiber 

services utility company that serves 33,000 customers with only 68 

employees. It offers the fastest Internet available in the United States 

at 10 Gigabits per second, has implemented efficiencies that saved 

its customers approximately $70 million over the last 40 years, and 

has customer satisfaction levels approaching 100 percent on many 

products and performance measures.

Operational Excellence

• Service reliability, as measured by reducing electrical outages 

and by the national System Average Interruption Duration Index 

(SAIDI)—or the total number of minutes in which a customer’s 

service is interrupted divided by the total number of customers 

served by the utility company over the same period of time—

has continuously improved and has outperformed the annual goal 

of less than 60 minutes, far outperforming industry, regional, and 

best-in-class averages (all 90–100 minutes).

• BTES has not had a lost work day in over a year, and over the last 

35 years, only two safety-related incidents have resulted in lost 

work days for the company.

• BTES works to prevent outages through several preventative 

actions, and a database with causes of outages is maintained and 

discussed by employees at daily and weekly outage meetings. 

The company’s results for the Average Service Availability Index 

(ASAI), a key measure of BTES’s preparedness, have outperformed 

all utility, region, and class comparisons, achieving a rate of 

99.99 percent from 2014 through 2016.

• BTES’s operating and maintenance expenses have consistently 

remained below those of other area power companies and other 

comparable sources. During the time frame of 2012–2016, 

BTES operating and maintenance expenses per customer were 

favorably lower than other Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) local 

power companies and all municipal average comparisons.

Customer Satisfaction and Engagement

• Due to efficiencies such as integration of the fiber optic system, 

energy-efficient home improvement loans, training at in-house 

seminars and trade shows, energy-efficient lighting and equipment, 

and continuous cost evaluation and control, BTES has saved 

money for its customers, enabling them to keep approximately 

$70 million in their pockets over the last 40 years. BTES considers 

its ability “to maintain the amount of money in customers’ 

pockets” to be a key financial success factor.

• To measure customer satisfaction, BTES uses the Customer Average 

Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) data maintained by the 

American Public Power Association. From 2013 through 2016, 

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 
BTES’s results for this index exceeded all utility, region, and class 

comparisons. Customer satisfaction levels with all BTES product 

lines (especially Internet, television, and electricity products), as

well as customer service, the help desk, average outage time per 

customer, Internet performance, and cable television, have been 

sustained over many years, with many levels approaching 

100 percent and exceeding competitor, industry benchmarks, and 

best-in-class comparison levels.

• All customer feedback, both positive and negative, is tracked and 

reviewed weekly by the company, with all senior leaders involved, 

during the formal Continuous Improvement Team meeting. 

The feedback is analyzed for potential gaps, trends, and 

improvement opportunities. Improvement opportunities are 

identified, root causes are determined, and actions are taken to 

address customer concerns.

A Valued Workforce

• Employee engagement is measured through performance 

appraisals, retention, and attendance. The percentage of employees 

with perfect attendance is about 75 percent, far exceeding the 

industry average of just under 20 percent. Employee retention 

has increased to 100 percent, while the industry benchmark is 

91 percent and the national industry average is 82 percent.

• Striving to provide the “best place to work” in the region, 

BTES demonstrates a commitment to building an effective 

workforce environment and to engaging and empowering the 

workforce. For example, BTES provides on-site exercise equipment 

for employees and retirees, access to information on healthy life 

styles and well-being, flu shots, and educational and advancement 

opportunities. BTES’s commercial-grade kitchen, which is brought 

online during extended area power outages and inclement 

weather, enables its support staff and leadership to produce meals 

for crews who are engaged in restoring power, further reducing the 

outage time experienced by customers.

• BTES uses its SMART (System Management and Resource Training)

system, an online training portal, to communicate process 

standards, standard operating procedures, and process changes and

improvements. Employees are expected to complete all assigned

modules every quarter, and 100 percent of BTES’s workforce 

annually participates in workforce development opportunities.

Leadership Fostering a Culture for Success

• BTES’s family-oriented management team has shared 

accountability and is consistently focused on the organization’s 

vision “to be the best electric, Internet, telephone, and cable 

television provider.” Senior leaders operate with a high level 

of mutual trust and collectively hold each other accountable 

for achieving strategic objectives, action plans, and high 

performance in the organization’s key success factors of safety, 

reliability, and finance.

• BTES has built a culture of continuous improvement, which 

is fully deployed throughout the organization and is effective at 

identifying and rapidly improving performance. For example, the 

CAP-DO process (Check, Act, Plan, Do) encourages employees 

and teams to rapidly improve processes. Through the use of 

its Improvement Initiative Process (IIP), BTES treats all customerand employee-related inputs as either an “OFI” (opportunity for 

improvement) or a “positive,” which provides consistency 

and rigor in data gathering from all departments and processes 

throughout the organization.

Superior Financial and Marketplace Results

• In its service area, BTES holds market shares of 100 percent for 

electrical services, 75 percent for Internet services, 60 percent 

for telephone services, and 70 percent for cable services. Those 

percentages for fiber-related services (Internet, telephone, and cable)

have increased relative to the company’s competition.

• Bad debts have consistently remained under 0.1 percent for BTES, 

far outperforming the regional average of 0.17 percent.

• BTES has steadily increased its annual revenue to approximately 

$112 million and has consistently produced a positive net income 

for more than 40 years.

2017 Award Recipient

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services 

For more information:

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services

PO Box 549

Bristol, TN 37621

lblevins@btes.net

www.btes.net

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The Baldrige Program educates organizations of all sizes and 

from all sectors in organizational performance management and 

improvement. We also administer the Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award. Our key services are to identify and recognize 

role-model organizations, share best management practices, 

and help organizations achieve best-in-class performance levels.

We are the only public-private partnership and Presidential award 

program dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. 

For more information on Baldrige, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige,

call (301) 975-2036, or email us at baldrige@nist.gov.

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce