In addition to recruiting companies to the state, the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah) works to support and facilitate local Utah company expansions. With these goals in mind, EDCUtah has published the 2021 Know the Customer (KTC) survey results.

The KTC program allows EDCUtah to better understand the challenges and plans of existing businesses and to support their future growth in the state. It is an exercise in listening to more effectively support their goals.

Conducted primarily by EDCUtah staff, these hour-long interviews often lead to insights about growth plans, affording “Team Utah” an opportunity to help companies in a timely manner. Aggregate data from these interviews can be used by state and local leaders to continuously improve the business landscape in Utah.

“On the ‘concerns’ side, Utah’s tight labor market and increasing cost of living are the biggest issues that surveyed companies see moving forward,” said senior business development manager and KTC program manager Erin Farr. “These issues mirror what we’re hearing from other desirable markets nationwide. Despite these concerns, companies continue to rate Utah as a great place for business.”

You can access the survey results here. Two highlights from the survey:

·      Utah’s net promoter score (NPS) regarding doing business here is extremely high at 87.3, and is higher among those companies headquartered out of state and that have moved operations here (92). For context, Apple’s NPS (one of the highest published NPS scores) is 72.

·      While this year’s report has a smaller sample size due to pandemic constraints, most surveyed companies are growing and looking to expand their employee footprint in Utah (74%).

EDCUtah plans to run the survey again next year, with goals to have a larger size with more geographic diversity.

The KTC program began in 2019 as an initiative to engage with Utah’s key employers to identify the support they need. The KTC program also provides an “early warning system” to identify Utah companies considering to move jobs outside of Utah.

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