The most switched on energy companies for customer service excellence

Resolver’s series of celebrating customer service continues with perhaps one of our most vital sectors for everyday living. You may be in the market to switch your energy supplier as we draw closer to autumn and winter – perhaps to save money or seal that preferred tariff.

But if how a provider deals with its customers is what you are looking for, why not take a look at Resolver’s roll call of the top energy firms that have given stand-out service – according to their own customers?

The energy market has seen a huge change over the years – with many challenger brands entering the fray alongside the typical ‘Big Six’ providers (and more) promising an easier service and cheaper bills. Choosing an energy supplier may not seem like the most exciting thing on the to-do list, but given they are the providers of our core utilities to keep our homes running, it’s important that you get a supplier you trust.

Having analysed more than 26,000 cases in the year to June 2020, from Resolver users in the energy sector, we can now reveal the top providers for customer service excellence.

Resolver scores: top energy companies

All round satisfaction

With a Resolver score of 93% Utility Point is top of the energy providers, followed by Octopus Energy (88%) and Shell Energy (71%). All three of our top energy companies scored impressive five stars out of five for customer satisfaction and how easy it was to deal with them as part of the complaints process.

Both Utility Point and Octopus Energy scored the full five stars for their response times and resolution times – meaning they respond to their customers sooner than their competitors – and solve the problem quickly too.

Utility Point also stood out for its resolution rate as the only one of our top three to achieve five stars, though at four out five Octopus Energy and Shell Energy were not far behind.

Recommendations

Meanwhile, customers of Octopus Energy and Shell Energy were keen to tell us that they would recommend their providers.

Both providers achieved five stars for advocacy – meaning that these providers gave them the confidence in their service to make them more likely to recommend them to friends, family or elsewhere.

More on celebrating customer service excellence

Resolver has also announced its top shops (in-store and online) and the best banks for service excellence – according to their customers. Why not take a look to help you choose who to use with confidence that you’ll receive great service?

Which banks stand out?

The UK’s top shops 

How we score

The one-line answer is that our scores are all down to the feedback of Resolver users, along with measures used to assess response and resolution times. But every bit of feedback has a story behind it and our data specialists analyse all the information in detail.

Every Resolver user is asked how satisfied they are with how the company they have had contact with when a case is closed. Our analysis of all these responses focuses on seven measurements of those aspects of customer service to come up with a score out of five. To get five stars for one of our measurements, a company has to score within the top 20%.

Resolver requires a minimum of 30 customer feedback responses for a company for it to be included in our series of customer service excellence, which is perhaps why you may not see some of your most-loved brands here. We are working on widening our analysis.

Here’s our rundown of the seven measurements we use to score customer service excellence:

Response Time: the time it takes the company to provide an initial response to the customer

Resolution Time: the time it takes to resolve the complaint

Resolution Rate: the percentage of the company’s cases satisfactorily resolved from the consumer’s perspective

Feeling Change: the change in the customer’s sentiment from the beginning to the end of the case

Ease: how easy it is to complain

Consumer Advocacy Score (CAS): how likely the customer is to recommend the company

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): how satisfied the customer is with the company.

If you have a complaint about one of the energy providers in this article, or any other energy supplier, we can help. Use Resolver to raise your complaint or query.