Customer satisfaction with the utilities sector has dropped to its lowest level since 2015 after falling 2.8 percentage points (ppts) in the past year, the UK Customer Satisfaction Index has shown.
Average satisfaction with energy and water companies is 71.7% in the latest report from the UK Institute of Customer Service.
This puts water and energy companies at the lowest average satisfaction score of the 13 sectors in the index.
For energy firms satisfaction has declined 3.8 ppts year-on-year, to 70.3%, with the biggest decline in the area of pricing. Average satisfaction with water companies fell 1.1 ppts to 74.8%.
Average levels of trust and the perception that an organisation makes customers feel reassured decreased by 0.5 points (out of 10) for the sector.
Despite the overall decline in the sector, UK Power Networks (UKPN) ranked in the top 10 for five key dimensions in the UKCSI report for the third year running. It was recognised for customer experience, complaint handling, customer ethos, emotional connection, and ethics.
UKPN’s director of customer service and innovation, Ian Cameron, said: “This fantastic result reflects the hard work of our employees, who understand the pressures facing so many of our customers and share in our commitment to deliver the basics of great service, well.
“We work hard to do the right thing by customers in these difficult times and are heartened that customers are noticing the difference. This is all the inspiration we need to keep at it.”
Northern Powergrid was in the top 10 for ethics, and both Wessex Water and Affinity Water were recognised for their complaint handling. Wessex was recognised as one of the most improved organisations over the year with a 6ppt overall increase to 74.4%.
UKPN was the only utility company to be highly rated across the five metrics of customer satisfaction.
UKCSI noted an overall decline in satisfaction of all sectors during 2022 after a steady improvement in complaint handling over the previous two years.