Energy supplier Customer Satisfaction was high throughout Covid-19 lockdown says new Ofgem report

Increased Satisfaction despite Covid-19 lockdown

The Household Consumer Perception of the energy market survey conducted by Ofgem in conjunction with Citizens Advice monitors consumer perceptions about the quality of service they receive from energy suppliers.

Run every quarter the survey has tracked consumer satisfaction rates on a range of areas since its introduction back in late 2018.

What makes this latest report interesting is that it was conducted during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown.

With many suppliers forced to furlough staff and experiencing reduced customer service capabilities, you may have thought that satisfaction would have fallen. In fact, the opposite is true.

On a quarter on quarter basis, customer satisfaction amongst the 3,000 energy bill payers surveyed was shown to have increased from 73% in Q1 to 77% in Q2, a figure that is the highest recorded in such surveys.

Customer service satisfaction was also shown to have improved, rising from 71% to 74%.

This may have been down to consumers cutting suppliers more slack due to the lockdown challenges or perhaps people were just more relaxed due to working from home and avoiding the stresses of the workplace.  

Complaints Handling 

It’s not all good news for energy suppliers, however, as when it comes to complaints handling satisfaction saw a significant decline.

The report states that complaints handling satisfaction was as high as 71% in Q4 2018 and fell to just 58% in the second quarter of 2020.

The most common consumer complaint was over the accuracy of energy bills. This issue regularly tops the charts when it comes to grievances against energy suppliers but strangely in the satisfaction report it was shown that 74% of those surveyed said they happy with the accuracy of their energy bills.

The unprecedented lockdown should be taken into consideration when looking at this report.

Less staff available due to the lockdown could be a major contributor to this as can the increased stress those in lockdown were feeling.

Many people were furloughed and under constant stress and perhaps looking for somewhere to vent their frustrations.

Read more: How should an energy supplier handle energy billing complaints?

Smart Meter installation satisfaction

Satisfaction with the smart meter installation process was also shown to have declined from the first quarter to the second quarter but again, the impacts of the lockdown should be considered.

For the majority of the second quarter of the year engineers were forbidden from entering domestic properties to install meters so when lockdown eased social distancing concerns and general fear over the spread of the virus were likely to have played their part in the fall in satisfaction.

Overall, it seems as though energy suppliers handled the challenges of the full lockdown well and with it easing energy suppliers should be working hard to get back up to pro-Covid levels of customer care.

Read more: Top Tips to increase Energy Company satisfaction

Further Reading

Is ‘Green Energy’ really good for the environment?

Resistance to Ofgem price controls intensifies

Number of installed SMETS2 smart meters hits five million mark (only another 22 million to go)

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