Customer service data
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 August - September 2023
Service quality
After a pause to refresh the survey methodology in the first half of 2023, the energy consumer satisfaction survey was run again in Aug - Sep 2023.
Overall customer service satisfaction fell to 62% in the Aug - Sep 2023 survey, from 66% in the previous survey (Nov - Dec 2022). This is the lowest level of customer service satisfaction found since this survey began in 2018. Among consumers with large suppliers, satisfaction with customer service decreased from 66% to 62%, whereas there was no significant change for consumers of medium (63%) or small suppliers (72%).
In Aug – Sep 2023, 70% of consumers who pay via credit meter said they are satisfied with billing accuracy, while 71% reported they are satisfied with the ease of understanding of the bill. Both measures are similar to Nov – Dec 2022 (69% and 70% respectively).
Among those who have switched supplier, 82% said they were satisfied with the overall switching process. This has risen from 67% in Nov – Dec 2022. Meanwhile, 66% were satisfied with the ease of comparing suppliers in Aug – Sep 2023, which is similar to Nov – Dec 2022 (64%).
On contact ease, 19% of all consumers told us they found it very or fairly difficult to contact their supplier in Aug – Sep 2023. This is a slight fall compared to Nov – Dec 2022 (22%). The proportion of customers finding it very or fairly easy to contact their supplier has remained at approximately half (51%). The same trends are observed for this question when filtered to only include those who said they have tried to contact their supplier.
If things go wrong
Across the market, the number of complaints received by suppliers per 100,000 customer accounts in Q3 2023 decreased by 5% from the previous quarter, which is a 2% decrease from Q3 2022. The decrease was observed across the different supplier groups.
For large suppliers as a group, the number of complaints received per 100,000 customer accounts decreased by 5% from the previous quarter, and also down by 1% compared to Q3 2022. For medium suppliers, it decreased by 8% from the previous quarter, and by 11% from Q3 2022. For small suppliers, it decreased by 17% from the previous quarter and by 32% from Q3 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.
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.