Our interactive customer service indicators

Energy suppliers offer more than different prices – they also offer different levels of customer service. These indicators give a snapshot of the performance trends we monitor on supplier customer service.

Customer service highlights January – February 2024

Service quality

Overall customer service satisfaction increased to 66% in the January – February 2024 survey, from 62% in the previous survey (August – September 2023). This remains well below the peak recorded in this tracker in 2020.

A higher proportion of consumers with large suppliers were satisfied with customer service in January – February 2024 (66%) compared to August – September 2023 (62%). By contrast there was no statistically significant change for consumers of medium (63%) or small suppliers (79%).

54% of all consumers told us they found it very or fairly easy to contact their supplier in January – February 2024. This is higher than in August – September 2023 (51%). The proportion of customers finding it very or fairly difficult to contact their supplier has fallen to 16%, from 19% previously. 

Among those who have switched supplier, 82% told us they were satisfied with the overall switching process. This is consistent with August – September 2023. At the same time, 72% said they were satisfied with the ease of comparing suppliers in January – February 2024, which is similar to August – September 2023 (82%). 

Due to an error in survey scripting in the January – February 2024 wave, two indicators are not available: the proportion of credit meter consumers who are satisfied with billing accuracy and the proportion of credit meter consumers satisfied with the ease of understanding of the bill.

If things go wrong

Across the market, the number of complaints received by suppliers per 100,000 customer accounts in Q4 2023 increased by 3% from the previous quarter. This is a 9% decrease from Q4 2022. The decrease from last year was observed across the different supplier groups.

For large suppliers as a group, the number of complaints received per 100,000 customer accounts increased by 2% from the previous quarter and decreased by 8 percent from Q4 2022. For medium suppliers, complaints per 100,000 customer accounts increased by 10% from the previous quarter and decreased by 12% from Q4 2022. For small suppliers, complaints per 10,000 customer accounts increased by 9% from the previous quarter and decreased by 28% from Q4 2022.

Service quality

We all expect certain things from our energy suppliers, like understandable bills and the ability to contact them when we need to. These indicators show customer satisfaction with those and other fundamental points for the overall market and across different groups of suppliers. The data comes from a dedicated energy consumer satisfaction survey conducted for Ofgem and Citizens Advice by BMG Research. The tracking survey started in 2018 and is conducted at regular intervals.

Research reports with findings from the energy consumer satisfaction survey are published here on a regular basis: Ofgem consumer research | Ofgem.

For previously published customer satisfaction indicators based on a different survey and methodology as of February 2017 please see Customer satisfaction indicators - previous updates | Ofgem.

If things go wrong

No-one wants to have to complain about their energy supplier, and if you do, you want them to resolve your problem as soon as possible. Ofgem, Citizens Advice and the Ombudsman publish complaints statistics. The separate statistics show how many complaints suppliers receive, how many complaints Citizens Advice handle, weighted by the seriousness of the complaint, and how many complaints are accepted by the Ombudsman after failing to be resolved by the supplier. This helps to show a full picture of the customer’s complaint from start to finish. 

The complaints data is provided by suppliers. As of July 2018, suppliers are required to submit complaints data to us on a monthly and quarterly basis. See our guidance on submitting customer complaints data. They also publish domestic complaints data on their websites, including their 'top 5' reasons for complaints and the measures they are taking to improve how they handle customer complaints. The large legacy suppliers have voluntarily published quarterly domestic complaints data since 1 October 2012, and many smaller suppliers have done so from 1 April 2013. At present, we generally cover suppliers with at least one full year of data. Missing data points in the complaint charts are due to suppliers failing to make the information available in time for our publication update or due to cases where we have asked suppliers to resolve data discrepancies.

Complaints by 100,000 customer accounts

Complaints by selection of small-sized suppliers per 10,000 customer accounts

Complaints resolution

Disconnection for debt

Extra support

Sometimes you might need your supplier to provide you additional support, for example by helping you to repay an energy debt. These indicators compare how well suppliers support their customers.