Energy companies satisfaction survey 2017

Smaller energy company, Ovo Energy, comes out as one of the top energy suppliers in the 2017 Which? energy satisfaction survey. Places for People Energy, Ebico, Flow Energy and Utility Warehouse also made it into the top five energy companies, rated highest by their customers.

Which? survey results show that these smaller companies are ahead of Britain's Big Six energy suppliers: British Gas, EDF, Eon, Npower, SSE and Scottish Power. Npower came last again this year with a customer score of just 44%, compared with Ovo’s 78% customer score.

Which? satisfaction survey 2017 results

In our customer satisfaction survey, Which? asked 8,917 energy customers to rate their gas and electricity suppliers. The biggest public survey of its kind reveals results for 29 energy suppliers, including six from Northern Ireland.

We asked customers to rate their energy supplier on a range of measures, including customer service and how it deals with complaints, whether it’s value for money, the clarity and accuracy of its bills, and how their supplier helps them save energy.

Each energy supplier receives a customer score based on how satisfied customers state that they are and the likelihood that they would recommend their energy company to a friend.

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England, Wales and Scotland - the results

Supplier Customer service Value for money Bills (accuracy and clarity) Helping to save energy
Which? customer
score
1. Ovo Energy (201)
78%
2. Places For People Energy (31)

n/a

n/a

 76%
3. Ebico (40)
75%
4. Flow Energy (40)

n/a

n/a

 73%
= Utility Warehouse (113)
73%
6. Ecotricity (41)
72%
7 Utilita (50)
71%
8. Green Star Energy (40)

n/a
70%
= iSupply Energy (41)
70%
10. Good Energy (41)
66%
11. First Utility (250)
64%
12. Sainsbury's Energy (150)
60%
= Spark Energy (37)

n/a
60%
14. Eon (1,111)
57%
15. British Gas (2,257)
56%
= SSE (1,023)
56%
17. Economy Energy (36)

n/a
55%
= EDF Energy (881)
55%
= M&S Energy (60)
55%
20. The Co-operative Energy (148)
54%
21. Scottish Power (844)
50%
22. Extra Energy (98)
49%
23. Npower (785)
44%

Northern Ireland - the results

Supplier Customer server Value for money Bills (accuracy and clarity) Helping to save energy
Which? customer
score
1. Electric Ireland (41)
80%
2. Budget Energy (40)

n/a
76%
3. Click Energy (30)

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

 72%
4. Firmus Energy (42)
66%
= Power NI (108)
66%
6. SSE Airtricity (89)
53%

Notes

Sample size in brackets. The general public survey was carried out in September and October 2016.

Overall average is 56% for GB and 66% for NI.

A ‘-’ means there were too few responses to give a rating. GB Energy Supply stopped trading in November 2016. It was in 10th place, with a customer score of 69%, **** value for money, ***** bills, **** helping you save energy. There were insufficient responses to rate customer service and complaints.

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Star ratings explained

We provide each company with a star rating for each measure. One star is the worst and five stars the best. The more stars a company has, the better. We looked at four core areas of satisfaction.

 
 

Customer service and complaints handling:

How well customers feel their suppliers deal with their queries, complaints and how they’re treated overall.

Value for money:

The extent to which customers feel they get value for money from their supplier. This is not price.

Bill accuracy and clarity:

How customers rate the accuracy of their energy supplier’s bills, and the ease of understanding energy bills from that supplier.

Helping you save energy:

Customers’ opinion on the supplier's efforts to encourage them to use less gas and electricity.

The customer score combines customers’ overall satisfaction and their likelihood of recommending their energy company to a friend. It is not directly linked to the star ratings.

 

Good news for small energy suppliers

Smaller energy suppliers occupy the top spots in our energy company survey again this year. Only smaller companies gained five star ratings from their customers for their bills. Smaller firms earned the best ratings for offering value for money too.

But not all small suppliers excel. Two small energy firms, Extra Energy and Co-operative Energy are among the lowest-scoring energy companies in our survey.

Other small companies, including Green Energy UK and LoCO2 Energy did not make it into our table because we received too few responses from their customers.

Bad news for energy giants

Of the big six energy suppliers, Eon’s customer score was the highest (57%) while Npower was ranked lowest again, with a customer score of 44%. Look at our energy suppliers section for more information about how each company did in the 2017 survey.

What about Northern Ireland?

Northern Ireland's results are presented in a separate table. This is because the energy market is different in Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK. The electricity market is regulated and electricity suppliers compete for customers. For gas customers in the Ten Towns area can only be supplied by Firmus Energy but in the Greater Belfast area they can choose between Firmus Energy and SSE Airtricity Gas Supply.

Our survey reveals ratings for six domestic NI suppliers below. We didn't receive enough responses in our survey about Open Electric to give it a customer score. To compare prices in Northern Ireland, see the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland’s gas and electricity comparison tables at www.consumercouncil.org.uk/energy .

Our customer research

In September and October 2016 we surveyed 8,917 UK adults who pay for their household energy about their experience with their gas and electricity suppliers. The percentage customer satisfaction score is based on the responses consumers gave for both overall satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend the energy supplier to a friend. Both questions are given equal weighting, and only those giving a valid response to both questions are included in the analysis. The responses are analysed and scaled to give a rating from 0-100%.

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