Which? magazine has published the results of a membership survey this month with feedback on customer satisfaction for gas and electricity suppliers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the big names we all love to hate come in for particularly heavy criticism with Scottish Power, E-on, EDF Energy and British Gas scoring less than 50% and the wooden spoon being awarded to nPower with the lowest score of all – a measly 32%!

The survey polled the opinions of 8,694 members of Which? and the responses were split roughly equally, 50% for gas and 50% for electricity.  Member’s complaints centred on poor customer service, poor value for money, inaccurate and unintelligible billing and a general lack of communication.

The best performer turned out to be The Utility Warehouse, scoring 72%, where customers praised their customer service, telephone support and accurate billing that was easy to understand.  The Utility Warehouse also scored well for value for money despite the fact that it doesn’t necessarily offer the cheapest deals around.  The company claims its prices are in line with the average cost of direct debit gas and electricity tariffs in each region.

BUYability is currently in the process of reviewing a broader range of (15) utility suppliers and the results will be published on this web site later next month.  It will be interesting to see how the Which? survey results compare to our own research. 

In the meantime, as the cost of energy goes up, customers will become much more sensitive to the perceived value they get from their energy supplier in return for their hard-earned cash. The energy companies will need to improve dramatically on these abysmal satisfaction results if they are going to keep existing customers happy.  Thankfully, it is so easy to switch supplier nowadays and the unhappy majority will no doubt be able to vote with their feet.

Well done to The Utility Warehouse.  Long may the queue of new customers at your door be the reward for all your hard work! 

Mini-Post by Alan Potts