Ecotricity, the worlds first green energy supplier, has topped the energy industry league for offering the best customer service, according to the latest ratings from Citizens Advice.
Earlier this year, Citizens Advice developed an online ratings tool that allowed energy customers to compare energy companies’ customer service at a glance – based on complaints handling, ease of contact, bill clarity and switching.
The Citizens Advice customer service tool uses a star rating system from 1 to 5, with the number of stars awarded to each supplier based on a combination of different factors such as how well energy suppliers handle customer complaints, the number of switches the supplier successfully carries out within 21 days and how highly people rate their supplier’s customer service.
In the ratings, Ecotricity scored consistently highly across all these categories and accumulated enough points to beat all the other energy companies, including a number of small independent suppliers.
The company has made substantial investments into its customer service capabilities and has achieved the lowest number of complaints on average since records began.
Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said: “We put lots of effort into making our customer service the very best, and these independent numbers show how it’s continuing to improve as we develop our digital presence – the app, online services and social media. We’re constantly looking to evolve and improve the experience people get from Ecotricity.
“For a long time, we’ve heard that people wanted to compare energy businesses on more than just price. To them, greenness and customer service are really important factors in their decision making process. You will see greenness and customer service going hand-in-hand, as both are the result of an approach that’s driven by ethics, not the bottom line.”
Ever since the company was founded, Ecotricity has lead the way in supplying green energy to UK consumers. In 2010 it developed the first supply of ‘Green gas’ and the company continues to re-invest its profits into new technologies such as its recently announced large scale energy storage technology, rather than pay dividends to shareholders.
Ecotricity claim to spend on average more per customer each year on new sources of Green Energy than any other energy company in Britain.