Only 57.0% of gas customers are satisfied with their provider, down from 60.5% 12 months ago. This low satisfaction is resulting in over 660,000 households considering that they will be likely to switch companies over the next twelve months.
These findings are from Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey of over 50,000 consumers per annum, including over 10,000 gas customers. The latest data covers the 12 months to November 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.
Kleenheat tops satisfaction in November
Kleenheat with a satisfaction rating of 70.9% is the best performer, followed by Red Energy on 68.0% and AGL (65.0%). There is a wide range of satisfaction levels across the major gas providers with Actew AGL on 56.0% currently the lowest.
Gas Provider Satisfaction – 10 Largest1
1. Based on customer numbers. 2. Includes brands not shown and don’t know brand. Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). 12 months to November 2016, n= 9,343; 12 months to November 2017, n= 10,084 Base: Australians 14+ with gas connected.
With satisfaction declining by 3.5% points across the total market over the last year, it is not surprising that nine of the largest gas providers showed declines , the exception being AGL which improved by only 0.1% point. The other three major players showed declines in satisfaction, with Origin Energy down 7.1% points to 59.8% , Alinta down 6.8% points to 60.8% and Energy Australia down 3.8% points to 63.4%.
Satisfaction with gas provider impacts switching intentions
The following chart shows that the level of satisfaction across the five point scale used in this survey has a direct impact on switching intentions. For example, half (50.1%) of the customers who are ‘very dissatisfied’ with their gas provider say that they are either ‘very likely’ or ‘fairly likely’ to switch companies in the next 12 months. Even among customers who were only ‘fairly dissatisfied’, 42.7% say that they are likely to switch providers in the next 12 months.
Likelihood Of Switching Gas Provider In The Next 12 Months By Level Of Satisfaction
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). 3 months to November 2017, n= 2,560 Base: Australians 14+ with gas connected.
Those customers who are ‘very satisfied’ have a very low intention to switch at only 2.6%. As a result it should be a focus of gas companies to increase their proportion of ‘very satisfied’ customers from the current level of only 20.4%, if they wish to improve customer retention.
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