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Exploring customer satisfaction in Great Britain's retail energy sector part III: A proposed Overall Customer Satisfaction score

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  • Littlechild, Stephen

Abstract

An Overall Customer Satisfaction (OCS) score is proposed, to summarise information about suppliers' performance and thereby enable customers to engage more effectively in the market. It is the average of ratings published by Ofgem, the Consumers’ Association (Which?), Citizens Advice and consumer review site Trustpilot. The index is calculated for over 30 energy suppliers from 2018 to 2021. Medium suppliers score highest, but Large suppliers markedly improved, albeit from a low level. Small suppliers have more variable scores. Suppliers scoring less than 60 have not survived. Medium suppliers with high OCS scores have been offering lower rather than higher tariffs.

Suggested Citation

  • Littlechild, Stephen, 2021. "Exploring customer satisfaction in Great Britain's retail energy sector part III: A proposed Overall Customer Satisfaction score," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:73:y:2021:i:c:s0957178721001338
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2021.101299
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Littlechild, Stephen, 2021. "Exploring customer satisfaction in Great Britain's retail energy sector part II: The increasing use of Trustpilot online reviews," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Ali Hortaçsu & Seyed Ali Madanizadeh & Steven L. Puller, 2017. "Power to Choose? An Analysis of Consumer Inertia in the Residential Electricity Market," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 192-226, November.
    3. Jason Harold & John Cullinan & Seán Lyons, 2020. "Consumer switching in European retail markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 453-471.
    4. Catherine Waddams Price & Minyan Zhu, 2016. "Empirical Evidence Of Consumer Response In Regulated Markets," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 113-149.
    5. Littlechild, Stephen, 2021. "Exploring customer satisfaction in Great Britain's retail energy sector Part I: The comparative use of Trustpilot online reviews in four sectors," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Xiaoping He & David Reiner, 2017. "Why Consumers Switch Energy Suppliers: The Role of Individual Attitudes," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 6).
    7. Bruce Mountain & Kelly Burns, 2021. "Loyalty taxes in retail electricity markets: not as they seem?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 1-24, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Littlechild, Stephen, 2021. "Exploring customer satisfaction in Great Britain's retail energy sector part II: The increasing use of Trustpilot online reviews," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Sizhe Zhang & Jinqi Liu & Jihong Wang, 2023. "High-Resolution Load Forecasting on Multiple Time Scales Using Long Short-Term Memory and Support Vector Machine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Joanna Rosak-Szyrocka & Justyna Żywiołek & Maciej Mrowiec, 2022. "Analysis of Customer Satisfaction with the Quality of Energy Market Services in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-24, May.
    4. Littlechild, Stephen, 2021. "Exploring customer satisfaction in Great Britain's retail energy sector Part I: The comparative use of Trustpilot online reviews in four sectors," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Customer satisfaction; Retail energy market; Trustpilot;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

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