Thursday 31 January 2019

Are energy suppliers leaving consumers in the dark?

Are energy suppliers leaving consumers in the dark?

A new survey of 2,486 UK billpayers, conducted by customer service business Quadient, suggests the majority of customers seem to think so.

Despite utility companies having greater access to consumers than ever before, only 23% of people believe their utility provider did enough to contact them the last time services were disrupted.

Three-quarters of consumers surveyed said their own data isn’t used to help them at all, with 14% adding this is despite their provider promising they would do so.

Around a tenth of billpayers said suppliers should use artificial intelligence as part of their customer experience but the most popular forms of communication were smart meters (44%), text messaging (41%) and mobile apps (40%).

The utilities in question should perhaps be concerned - more than half of consumers feel they have more power than they did five years ago and as many as 43% have moved to alternative suppliers or plan to do so.

Mustafa Atik, Utilities Expert at Quadient, said: "As new utility companies offer incentives such as a more personal service and companies like IKEA aim to draw consumers’ attention with switching services, treating customers purely as an anonymous resource is a recipe for losing business.

"Companies must look at what consumers are demanding and find a way to meet and ideally exceed their needs, delivering a first-class customer experience."