Complaints figures drive customer service in energy market to new lows
Does a consumer duty hold the key to better outcomes for consumers.
Today marks the latest release of the Energy Supplier Star Rating, our quarterly review of energy suppliers’ customer service. The release, which covers January to March 2024 shows customer service across the energy sector remains at low levels, underscoring the urgent need for industry reform. EDF and Utilita have been singled out as the worst performers, while Ecotricity has emerged as the top supplier.
The ratings reveal a troubling trend: customer service ratings plummeted by 10.5% compared to the same period in 2021. While ratings were worse in 2022, the data shows that even as cost pressures ease, customer service has yet to rebound to pre-crisis levels. And on a quarter on quarter basis, ratings have flatlined since Q4 of 2023.
What’s driving poor customer ratings?
Part of the recent fall in overall figures has been due to a methodology change we made in Q3 2023 to remove billing and switching metrics which were inflating many supplier’s scores. But even with the methodology change, the major driver of poor overall performance is historically high complaint levels. We measure complaints as substantive contacts to third party organisations: Citizens Advice Consumer Service, Advice Direct Scotland, the Extra Help Unit (EHU) and the Energy Ombudsman. Complaints are then weighted according to the organisation, with ombudsman complaints weighted heaviest. Compared to the same period in 2021/22, complaints have increased by 93% over the last 4 quarters. Larger suppliers like British Gas and Ovo perform particularly poorly.
As the graph above shows, although complaints have decreased from their peak in 2022/23, they remain higher than at any point before 2021. Even more concerningly, this trend has been driven by the most serious types of complaints: those that go to the Ombudsman and EHU. This trend appears to be robust showing little improvement in recent quarters, indicating that much higher levels of complaints may be the new normal.
The news isn’t all bad. There has been significant progress in reducing call waiting times. The median wait time is now just under 2 minutes, the lowest since Q2 2020, and a major improvement from nearly 5 and a half minutes in 2022. With around 60% of all contacts to suppliers happening by phone, shorter wait times directly translate to greater satisfaction and better consumer outcomes.
This success does have to be qualified. It’s important to note that these figures are quarterly averages and do not reflect peak times. It’s also worth noting that some suppliers’ wait times have got worse, including large suppliers like EDF. No supplier has achieved average wait times under 30 seconds since 2021, and the largest 6 suppliers have never achieved it.
