Survey Results Highlight Best and Worst Energy Suppliers in UK

In the latest Which? Switch satisfaction survey, some of the biggest names in European energy received the lowest scores in a surprising turn of results. Npower scored the lowest on the survey for the third year in a row, earning just 28 percent of customer satisfaction scores. However, British Gas was a close second for worst energy provider scoring only 38 percent in ratings.

The Which? Switch survey ranks companies based on customer service, accuracy of bills, and ease of which bills can be understood, as well as conceived value for money for eight of the biggest energy suppliers in the UK.

The survey results showed that small energy companies tend to fair better with customer service, and the Utility Warehouse, a small energy firm, ranked the highest at 75 percent overall, with another small firm, Ebico coming in second at 66 percent. Both companies received the highest customer service rankings.

Many of the customers’ biggest complaints were that energy bills were often confusing. Most customers that were the most satisfied received bills that contained itemized information, and the balance was easy to see at a glance.

The survey’s editor, Martyn Hocking, said that energy companies needed to understand that consumers are not going to be able to reduce their energy consumption if they cannot understand clearly how much energy they are using. He went on to state that customer service needs will increase when the clarity of the bills increases. All of Hocking’s advice was in clear conjunction with the results of the survey.

Npower, the company that came in last for the third year in a row, says it is working hard to improve customer satisfaction by increasing the budget for new systems to £200m, and increasing customer service staff to 300 people.