Electricity customer satisfaction continues to slide

The latest ‘Customer Satisfaction – Electricity Providers Report’ shows a mixed bag of satisfaction scores for individual providers, with the sector average (60.9%) being far lower than the 73.5% seen when the survey was first conducted in 2009. That decline is also reflected in Roy Morgan’s August Net Trust Score (NTS) measure which showed that for around half of electricity providers, more consumers distrusted them than trusted them – giving those firms a negative Net Trust Score. 

Simply Energy takes the lead 

Simply Energy has taken the top spot in the September customer satisfaction stakes, with 67% of customers saying they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied with their electricity provider. Red Energy was in second place with 66%, and Alinta was third with 63% satisfied overall. 

The three biggest providers, Energy Australia, AGL and Origin had relatively low satisfaction levels of 60%, 60% and 59% respectively.

The satisfaction scores are based on Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey, which includes in-depth personal interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 Australians per annum in their own homes, including over 14,000 interviews with people who rated their satisfaction with their electricity connection.

(Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia); Base: Australians 14+ with electricity connected, 12 months to September 2017, n= 14,910 and 12 months to September 2018, n=15,009. Chart percentages calculated from data including some smaller brands now shown.)

Most improved

Ergon Energy showed the biggest improvement in customer satisfaction over the 12 months to September 2018, adding 9 percentage points to reach 58% satisfaction overall. ActewAGL was the second most improved, rising 4 percentage points to 61% over the same period. 

Restless customers

Although satisfaction has continued to fall year-on-year, the number of connected customers saying they will switch providers in the next 12 months has remained relatively static. Since May of this year the proportion of ‘quite dissatisfied’ customers intending to switch rose from 36% to 38.5%, but the proportion of ‘very dissatisfied’ customers looking elsewhere fell slightly from 43.7% to 41.9%.

(Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia); Base: Australians 14+ with electricity connected, 12 months to September 2017, n= 14,910 and 12 months to September 2018, n=15,009.

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan, commented:

“Electricity providers have struggled with customer satisfaction during a period of historically high electricity prices. While it’s pleasing to see strong improvement across a couple of providers in the past year, it’s clear that many providers have a long way to go. 

“It’s unlikely that continuing political argument in Canberra over energy policy is helping customers’ perceptions of their chosen providers – the government’s threat to regulate prices if the industry doesn’t voluntarily cut prices being the most recent example.

“In this environment it’s more important than ever for providers to understand what they are and are not getting right for their customers. Roy Morgan has extensive data on satisfaction, Net Trust Scores across the sector, and the drivers of both to help brand marketers getting more in touch with their customers.”