In today’s fast changing world consumer expectations are continually rising. This means that delivering the right levels of customer satisfaction is a journey not a destination. Companies have to keep investing in improving the service and experience they offer if consumers are to remain satisfied. It seems that these investments are beginning to pay off...
Earlier in the year I moved house and needed to change the existing energy supplier for the property. By the time all the paperwork was completed, I owed the old utility for a week’s energy. The bill arrived, and when I opened it I had a real shock. It was enormous – the company wanted to charge me $73,295.44 for just 7 days service! Clearly, there was some mistake...
While all industries need to ensure they are delivering an excellent customer experience, some seem to be intrinsically better at it than others. This concept is backed up by recent research carried out by service design consultancy Engine. Its survey found that consumers rated the public transport, utility, insurance and broadband sectors, as worst for customer experience and service...
Recent research from charity Citizens Advice found major differences between how UK utilities handle customer service. The top performing utility (SSE) received just 47 complaints per 100,000 customers, yet another had 944 – over 20 times more. A further four companies had over 400 complaints per 100,000, within the three months between April and June 2015.
At a time when consumers are getting ever more demanding, it is good to see that complaints have fallen over the last year in one sector. According to the Consumer Council for Water, an industry watchdog, written complaints made by customers to their water providers have fallen by 18% in 2013/14 compared with the previous year in England and Wales. While four water companies did record a rise in c...
Figures released this week by the Energy Ombudsman show that complaints against energy companies in the UK are at their highest ever level. They more than doubled, from 10,598 in the first six months of 2013 to 22,671 in the same period of 2014. 84% of complaints related to billing and this news follows previous large fines for misselling for a number of utilities.Driven by a desire to open up the...
With large hikes in energy prices being announced by major UK utilities the spotlight is currently firmly on the sector. Politicians have condemned the rises, with Labour leader Ed Miliband threatening to impose a price freeze and ex-Prime Minister John Major calling for a windfall tax on utility profits. At the same time utilities have received major fines for past misselling and misleading custo...
Many customer service teams need to provide fast answers in times of crisis – for example when products or services go wrong. However when it comes to utilities, crises can be much more serious – essentially a matter of life or death when flooding, storms or other natural disasters strike.The perfect example is Western Power in Australia. Headquartered in Perth and with over 1 million ...
electricity (Photo credit: Terry Freedman) The utility sector has often struggled with customer service but new figures seem to show that performance is improving. The latest quarterly statistics from Consumer Focus found that overall complaints about the six major energy companies fell by 7% in the first quarter of 2012. This meant that the average number of complaints was 77 per 100,000 cu...
Water is a constant topic of conversation across the UK. We complain about having either too much or too little rain and currently seem to have the worst of both worlds, with the wettest drought on record.Leaving the weather aside, utilities in the water sector are now facing tougher sanctions if they don’t deliver excellent customer service. Industry regulator Ofwat has introduced the Servi...