Hate Your Gas & Electricity Supplier? Don’t Get All Fired Up... Just Switch! - PART 1

How on Earth (well, in the U.K. to be more precise) do you find unbiased reviews on this country’s energy suppliers in relation to concerns that are important to most domestic and business consumers?

Let’s begin with identifying what the main issues are (in no particular order of importance):

• Good customer service, i.e. polite staff, satisfied customers
• Value for money
• Telephone support, i.e. ease of contact, time taken to get through, satisfaction with / quality of telephone support service
• Billing, i.e. accuracy of bills, ease of understanding, resolving billing queries, not getting bills, billing options
• Lack of information, i.e. guidance on saving energy, saving money on energy

Most people in the UK can empathise with these concerns and relate their own woeful tales of having been let down by their respective energy supplier(s) in one way or another.

I guess the next question is: where do we look for unbiased information that will allow us to make an informed decision on which supplier(s) to give our custom to?

My own research on this has led to the following list (you’ll soon begin to realise how much I like lists):

• In the offline world:

 Specialist consumer magazines – the only one that I have come across and many people know as “the UK’s leading consumer magazine”: Which?
 Specialist energy magazines – Energy World, Petroleum Review, UK Power
 Word-of-mouth recommendations / referrals – from friends, family, work colleagues.

• In the online world:
 Specialist consumer websites – Yes, it’s Which? again, and many comparison/review websites such as moneysupermarket.com, confused.com, consumerfocus.org.uk, homeadvisoryservice.co.uk, uswitch.com, consumerdirect.gov.uk,
 Specialist energy websites – too numerous to mention, but you can expect to find all major energy companies and suppliers represented here.
 Recommendations / referrals on forums, in press releases and articles, in blog posts (such as this one ;-), social/business networking and other websites.

Now most of us prefer to take the easy route to finding the best possible money-saving deal for our energy services. Some of us are comfortable online, spending time trawling through the comparison sites looking for the cheapest. Others find comfort in following up recommendations or referrals from those people that they know and trust. Some haven’t got the energy to switch or cannot be bothered, saying: “... better the devil you know...”

Which energy companies tick all or most of the boxes when it comes to satisfying most customers’ concerns?

Have a think about this one, let me have your feedback and I’ll be back with part 2 of this blog post sooner than you can say “... let’s get energised!”

Vijay V. Patel

I’m hoping that you found this article both agreeable and worthwhile sharing with your Twitter friends – in which case, please feel free to hit the “retweet” button on this post. Many thanks.