Customers have lost faith in their Electricity Provider

According to the latest release to market from sustainability research company, Connection Research, the majority of Australian residential householders have lost faith in their electricity retailer.

Connection Research collected surveys from over 5000 Australian households in September of 2011 on key issues including Energy Usage and Consumption Patterns, Energy Billing, Energy Retailer Performance and Energy Pricing. Respondents rated their energy retailer in five key areas:

Value for Money

Reliability of Service

Customer Service

Amount of Information on the bill

Ease of reading bill

Each retailer was then benchmarked with a score given between 1 and 100. The most prominent electricity retailers throughout Australia were voted on and were amongst the lowest performers in the group. “With an average score of 45.2 out of 100, those retailers who scored above the average still have something to worry about considering the overall highest score was 55.1,” said Connection Research’s National Sustainability Portfolio Manager, Cassandra Phillips. “This indicates that customers are far from happy with the services they receive from their Electricity Retailer and are ready to jump ship, given the right opportunity or service offer,” said Ms Philips.

“Electricity consumers are becoming more energy aware in light of the changing energy landscape. The bill and the energy service provider are under constant scrutiny from the end user at present with the price of electricity expected to continue to rise over the next twelve months and consumers wanting to get the best bang for their buck,” said Ms Phillips.

It’s time for electricity retailers to realise that their customers are ranking them well and truly below what is considered to be acceptable. If retailers continue on the same path, at this rate they are likely to lose a lot more customers than they think as the market continues to provide opportunities for end users to source their electricity elsewhere.

For more information on residential electricity trends please contact Cassandra Phillips
on +61 2 9467 9833.