customer service

The proportion of customers saying utility firms offer the best service across 14 different sectors has jumped from 10% to 13% in the last year. That’s according to a new survey of 1,025 members of the public conducted by service design consultancy Engine, which has seen utilities rise from twelfth to ninth place in terms of customer satisfaction. This 3% rise was […]

British Gas had paid £1.1 million to compensate customers for missed appointments. The Big Six supplier has made the payments to domestic and micro business customers after its third-party agents missed appointments with customers or did not keep them on time and did not compensate them as required by regulator Ofgem. Around 12,000 customers, mostly […]

Extra Energy has been voted the energy supplier with the worst customer service for the second time. It was awarded the lowest score on Citizens Advice’s star rating system, receiving 2.05 stars for the January to March period, down from the 2.5 stars it received between October and December 2016. In terms of complaints handling, […]

A new online tool which rates the customer service provided by energy suppliers has been launched. It will allow consumers to see how good the 18 biggest energy suppliers are at providing service and help them make informed choices about switching. The tool uses a star rating system from one to five, with the number […]

Energy suppliers lost more than £5.2 billion last year as poor service led customers to switch to rival firms. New statistics from Ombudsman Services reveal one in 10 complaints – a total of 5.5 million – in the UK in 2016 were related to energy companies. Around 16% of people surveyed said they resigned due […]

In a sector low on trust how do you keep hold of customers? Ken McCaig, Head of Retention at Total Gas & Power, says it’s all about being agile, flexible and, most importantly, transparent. He proudly boasts of a 99% customer retention rate for I&C (large business) customers who deal directly with them, a staggering […]

OVO Energy has agreed to pay £58,000 after its agents missed appointments with customers or turned up late. Around £54,000 will be paid in redress as it failed to compensate customers when the incidents occurred in 2014. The rest of the money will be given to charity Step Change to help energy customers in debt. […]

Co-operative Energy has agreed to pay £1.8 million to its customers for failing on service. Part of the amount – £1.6 million – has already been paid while the remainder is due to be compensated to some customers. The money the supplier is unable to return to consumers will go to charity StepChange, which will […]

Utilities have been ranked as the second-worst industry for customer service. This year’s Customer Experience Survey from service design consultancy, Engine, has revealed this is the case for the second year in a row. Around 36% of customers said utilities is one of the worst three sectors for customer service, 5% more than last year. Public […]

ScottishPower has agreed to pay £18 million for failing to treat its customers fairly. It follows an investigation by Ofgem into the Big Six supplier’s complaint resolution, call handling and billing processes, which were found to be “inadequate”. The energy firm’s customer service issues, during and following its new IT system, resulted in more than […]