Three water companies are in the top five performing utility providers for customer satisfaction, with all either on a par with or beating the national average score.
It comes as the utilities industry continues to perform badly overall according to the Institute of Customer Service’s (ICS) latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), with the sector seeing a nine-year low.
Among the top five utilities are Bristol Water, United Utilities and Northumbrian Water, with all bar Northumbrian posting results above both the sector and national averages.
Topping the table once again for utilities is UK Power Networks (UKPN), which was also the only utility company to be featured in the top 50 companies overall, coming 11th out of 275 organisations. Octopus Energy meanwhile was the only power retailer in the top five utilities.
The ICS only publishes data for the top performing companies and said it would not provide data for firms at the other end of the scale, when asked by Utility Week.
Yet even the top performing companies fared worse overall than they did last year, with each seeing a negative year-on-year change in their score.
Responding to the news Helen Brown, director of consumer relations at the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), said: “It is positive to see so many water companies make the top five of the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index. However, there is still a gap between the best and worst performers – this needs to improve.
“We expect companies to do everything they can to minimise the frustrations experienced by customers and to improve the overall level of service they provide. These results are an important opportunity for those who do fall short to learn from the best performers and to understand how they can improve so that the customer experience across the industry is good regardless of the provider.”
UK Power Networks’ director of customer service and innovation, Ian Cameron, said: “We are humbled that during these challenging times in the energy sector, our customers have recognised the tremendous effort our employees have put in to step up our game.
“To now be the only utility in the Top 50, and placed just outside the Top 10 overall (achieving 11th nationally) is a really proud moment for our business, and shows what focus and hard work can achieve.
“That said we still firmly have our eyes on Top 5 so will not rest until we are back at the top showing that a utility can in fact take the challenge to the other sectors.”
The UKCSI for July 2023 scores the utilities sector at 69.5 – 4.6 points lower than July 2022 and 7.1 points below the UK all-sector average. It marks the lowest average customer satisfaction with utilities in nine years, with the sector previously scoring 69.4 in July 2014.
Overall the utilities sector ranks 13th of the 13 UKCSI sectors. The average Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the sector has fallen by 14.4 points to -10.8, making it the only sector with a negative NPS.
Energy is the worst performing of the two utilities, with satisfaction declining by 5.3 points to 67.9. Average satisfaction with price/cost fell by one point to 5.6 (out of 10) and the perception that energy companies do the right thing in their business practices fell by 0.8 points to 6.4. ICS said that in both cases this is the lowest score of any sector.
Average satisfaction with water companies meanwhile has declined by 3.5 points to 72.6, while average satisfaction of water companies’ customers with price/cost fell by 0.3 points to 6.9.
One key feature of the report was satisfaction with the complaints handling process.
Average satisfaction for the handling of a complaint saw a drop of 1.3 points to 5.2 out of 10 which is 0.6 points below the UK all-sector average. Satisfaction with the speed of resolving a complaint is 5.1, also down year on year by 1.3 points, and 0.7 points below the UK average.
Just under a quarter (23%) of customers experienced a problem with an organisation which is 6.6 percentage points more than the UK all-sector average.
The leading causes of issues for consumers are quality or reliability of goods/services (27.7%), cost (24.6%), staff competence (21%) and an organisation failing to meet its promises or commitments (19.3%). The proportion of problems related to cost is the highest of any sector.
Additionally, customers were asked to identify the top three things the company they dealt with should do in order to improve its service. These leading issues are making it easier to contact the right person to help customers; billing; and developing more knowledgeable staff.
Speaking to Utility Week off the back of the report Jo Causon, ICS chief executive, said: “When we look at organisations performing above the UK all-sector average, they have several attributes in common. They are consistently good at delivering on their customer experience, getting it right first time, keeping their promises, training and developing their staff, and making it easy to interact with them. They also score well on caring about their customers, their ethics and creating an emotional connection.
“Given the current challenges, including in the water sector, we know that where organisations demonstrate a balanced approach to their different stakeholders, they will deliver better long-term results. Utilities companies provide an essential service, and it is therefore critical that they respond to and resolve issues in a timely manner.”