The latest customer satisfaction data from Roy Morgan shows a continuing downward trend in the electricity sector, with the proportion of ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied customers falling to 60.9% in the year to September 2018 compared with 61.7% in the year to September 2017.
According to Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan, electricity providers have struggled with customer satisfaction during a period of historically high electricity prices.
“While it’s pleasing to see strong improvement across a couple of providers in the past year, it’s clear that many providers have a long way to go.”
The latest ‘Customer Satisfaction – Electricity Providers Report’ shows a mixed bag of satisfaction scores for individual providers, with the sector average (60.9%) being far lower than the 73.5% seen when the survey was first conducted in 2009. That decline is also reflected in Roy Morgan’s August Net Trust Score (NTS) measure which showed that for around half of electricity providers, more consumers distrusted them than trusted them – giving those firms a negative Net Trust Score.
Simply Energy takes the lead
Simply Energy has taken the top spot in the September customer satisfaction stakes, with 67% of customers saying they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied with their electricity provider. Red Energy was in second place with 66%, and Alinta was third with 63% satisfied overall.
The three biggest providers, Energy Australia, AGL and Origin had relatively low satisfaction levels of 60%, 60% and 59% respectively.
The satisfaction scores are based on Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey, which includes in-depth personal interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 Australians per annum in their own homes, including over 14,000 interviews with people who rated their satisfaction with their electricity connection.
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia); Base: Australians 14+ with electricity connected,
12 months to September 2017, n= 14,910 and 12 months to September 2018, n=15,009. Chart percentages calculated from data including some smaller brands now shown.)
Most improved
Ergon Energy showed the biggest improvement in customer satisfaction over the 12 months to September 2018, adding 9 percentage points to reach 58% satisfaction overall. ActewAGL was the second most improved, rising 4 percentage points to 61% over the same period.
Restless customers
Although satisfaction has continued to fall year-on-year, the number of connected customers saying they will switch providers in the next 12 months has remained relatively static. Since May of this year the proportion of ‘quite dissatisfied’ customers intending to switch rose from 36% to 38.5%, but the proportion of ‘very dissatisfied’ customers looking elsewhere fell slightly from 43.7% to 41.9%.
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia); Base: Australians 14+ with electricity connected,
12 months to September 2017, n= 14,910 and 12 months to September 2018, n=15,009.
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