Small energy firms trump big six for customer satisfaction

Small energy suppliers occupied the prime positions in the recent Which? energy survey, while the big six ranked poorly.

Utility Warehouse came out on top in the survey of more than 9,000 customers, followed by Flow Energy in second place and Octopus Energy and PFP Energy in joint third.

Each energy supplier received a customer score based on satisfaction and how likely customers were to recommend their service to a friend.

Which? made just one energy company a “recommended provider” this year –  Octopus Energy, after it performed well in all categories.

Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, said: “We are very happy to gain third place, it is genuinely about being customer centric, I look after customers personally every day, and so do all of the directors in the business. We are so aware of what customers want and what we need to do differently to change it.

“We have combined this with building customer-focused technology, so as customers’ needs change, we can move with them-it’s about flexibility. We have to fight for and win every single customer.”

The biggest six energy suppliers all featured in the lower half of the table. Npower was the lowest-scoring supplier again this year.

British Gas and Scottish Power shared 26^th place, SSE and Sainsbury’s shared 24^th place and EDF and Eon shared 22^nd place, with Npower being ranked last in 31^st place.

The survey also revealed customers who opted for medium-sized energy suppliers could save more than £300 per year with many of those companies gaining five-star ratings from customers for being value for money. Customers using the big six on a standard variable tariff could save up to £333 a year by switching to the cheapest dual fuel deal on the market. Only one third (32 per cent) of consumers using the big six reported  they were satisfied, compared to 52 per cent of customers using medium-sized suppliers.

The annual energy satisfaction survey published on 17 January, was the biggest-ever carried out by Which? covering 31 energy suppliers in England, Scotland and Wales, plus all seven in Northern Ireland.

Customers were asked to rate their energy supplier on a range of measures including online and telephone customer service, value for money, clarity, accuracy of bills, how complaints were dealt with and how their supplier helps them to understand and reduce energy use.

A spokesperson from Npower, said: ‘It is disappointing to see these results as we’re currently receiving the second lowest number of complaints per 100,000 customers out of all the big six energy suppliers and our own internal customer satisfaction also shows we’re improving. Clearly, there’s more for us to do and we’ll continue working on improving our position in this survey.’

Table: Which? Energy Satisfaction survey ranking results 2017