Product category:
General insurance
News Release from: uSwitch | Subject: Insurance
Edited by the Insidemoneytalk Editorial
Team on 21 May 2007
Industry insight from uSwitch.com
Breaking news... breaking news...
The latest independent energy Customer Satisfaction Report from uSwitch.com was published on Monday 14 May 20071 Based on responses from over 6,500 energy customers, the key findings were: Worst provider - British Gas is voted worst provider for the second consecutive time, Improving at last - British Gas customers are beginning to see an improvement to its service - more than half (55%) are now satisfied, 11% more than six months ago, Biggest improver - Powergen improves its satisfaction levels by 11% and moves up into 3rd place, Biggest decline in customer satisfaction - ScottishPower, one of the last two suppliers to announce price cuts, is the only supplier to see customer satisfaction levels drop and falls from 2nd to 4th place in the league table, Most at risk - npower is now only 2% ahead of British Gas for customer satisfaction, Best overall provider - Scottish and Southern Energy wins consumers' votes for the third successive time - 70% of its customers are satisfied with its service, Big Six service levels slightly up -consumers report a small improvement in Big Six service levels - 60% are satisfied compared with just over half (52%) six months ago, Poor value for money -less than half of consumers (45%) think that the Big Six give value formoney and only 39% believe that they give customers the best available deal, Environmental concerns - more than three quarters (78%) of consumers think suppliers don't have a good attitude towards the environment
This article was originally published on Insidemoneytalk on 6 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The full report and findings can be viewed on uSwitch.com.
uSwitch.com predicts: Follow-the-leader price cuts throughout the summer - but only from four of the Big Six as EDF Energy and ScottishPower's latest cuts are not implemented until June, New discounts being introduced instead of straightforward price cuts, Suppliers becoming even more selective about which parts of the country they will compete in.
Geoff Slaughter, Energy Product Manager at uSwitch.com, predicts: "EDF Energy and ScottishPower's price cuts, which don't kick-in until 15 June, have effectively taken them out of the price war for the next couple of months".
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Geoff Slaughter, Energy Product Manager at uSwitch.com says:
7.8 million British households have joined the battle to cut carbon emissions...
...but lack of information and incentives could be stopping 18.21 million more from joining them
"However, there are still four contenders in the ring and, with British Gas having laid down the gauntlet for the second time, things look set to hot up again".
"We expect a flurry of follow-the-leader price cuts until the end of Summer/beginning of Autumn".
"Behavioural Shifts: "As suppliers start to reach the edge of their comfort zone, we'll witness a tactical change.
Instead of cutting prices they will look to reward consumer behaviour that is beneficial to their business, for example by introducing discounts for signing up for paperless billing or online meter reading, which boosts the supplier's environmental credentials.
Suppliers may dress up their discounts as pseudo price cuts, whereas actually they are simply passing on some of the cost savings to customers.
Regional Treatment: "Suppliers will continue to be even more selective about which parts of the country they will compete most aggressively in".
"Tactical pricing will widen the gap between the average published rate and the actual price consumers will pay".
"This makes it even more important to look beyond nationally advertised rates and to get an accurate and comprehensive price comparison before making the switch." Energy News Reviewed: British Gas shakes up the market with further price cuts - 26th April 2007: British Gas announced new price cuts of 6% for electricity and 3% for gas2, effective immediately.
These are in addition to the price cuts, which became effective in March 2007.
No change for Click Energy - the online tariff which is already the cheapest in the market.
EDF Energy reduces gas prices - 30th April 2007 The energy giant is cutting its gas prices by 10.2% with effect from 15 June 2007 - but is leaving its electricity customers dangling after declaring that they will see no reduction.
The excuse: it had the cheapest electricity price at the beginning of 2007 and, despite other suppliers' moves, it will remain second cheapest for electricity without making a cut.
ScottishPower finally announces price cut - 30th April 2007: ScottishPower has finally cut its prices by up to 16.5% for gas and up to 5.5% for electricity.
The move follows hot on the heels of EDF Energy's latest cut, but both providers are choosing to delay implementation until 15th June - by which time energy usage will be on the wane for the summer months.
Industry News: Over four million British households are still paying over the odds for separate gas and electricity suppliers 1.1 million5 of those are low income households - switching to a dual fuel deal could slash their costs.
The average low income single fuel customer has been with their current supplier for more than 11 years - casting doubts over whether they have received any benefit from competition.
Almost half of all British households, 11.6 million, have yet to review their energy suppliers and switch to save money on their bills.
Switching hots up On the 23rd April, Ofgem announced that 600,000 customers6 had switched in the first two months of this year - 100,000 more than during the same period last year.
Four million people switched supplier in 2006 - the highest rate for four years, however more than 10 million customers in the UK have never switched providers.
Water: The beginning of April saw new water charges come into effect for customers across Britain - with an average increase of 7%7 in water bills for 2007-2008.
23 out of 24 water companies operating in the UK chose to increase price despite a collective ?2.6bn profits in 2005/6.
Ofwat published a report8, which concluded that although water bills in England and Wales are "generally in line with those of customers in other countries", customer service levels appear to be higher.
Although overall service is improving, Scottish Water is significantly outperformed by England and Wales.
For more information visit uSwitch.com or call 0800 093 06 07.
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