Are Consumers Happy with Their Electricity Providers?

Investments in modernizing the electric grid have enabled a sea change in the relationship between consumers and their electricity providers. Consumers today have access to many new programs, rate plans and technologies that can help them meet their energy goals, and providers are now playing many new roles beyond just delivering electrons.

To assess Americans’ views on their electricity providers, grid modernization and the electricity usage data that’s now widely available to them, the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) recently conducted the “Customer Satisfaction and the Smart Grid” study, which was based a nationally representative online survey with 1,500 respondents.

Here are three findings from the survey related to how consumers view their providers:

1. Consumers seem satisfied with their electricity providers.

When asked to rate their overall satisfaction with their electricity providers on a 10-point scale (with 10 being “extremely satisfied”), consumers were generally satisfied with their providers’ service, giving them a mean satisfaction score of 7.4 out of 10. However, a few notable discrepancies emerged when we look at different groups of consumers.

As somewhat expected, the Trusting Traditionalists – a segment of older consumers that views their electricity providers as trustworthy, reliable entities – are the most satisfied (7.7), while the Comfort Seekers – a small segment that’s generally not open to participating in utility programs and services – is expectedly the least satisfied at 6.9 out of 10.

Between these poles, though, consumers who are more engaged with their providers seem to be more satisfied, with the Green Pioneers rating them a 7.6 out of 10. There are also two other characteristics that correlate with increased customer satisfaction. Consumers who review their energy usage data are more satisfied than the mean, while EV drivers tend to be much more satisfied, with 31 percent being “extremely satisfied” (compared to 23 percent for the Traditionalists and Pioneers).

2. Trustworthiness closely aligns with customer satisfaction.

The survey also asked respondents to rate how trustworthy they believe their electricity providers to be, and we found that responses almost perfectly aligned with customer satisfaction, with trustworthiness coming in just marginally lower (7.3 mean trust rating compared with the 7.4 noted above). The Comfort Seekers are again the lowest at 6.7, whereas the Trusting Traditionalists – as their name suggests – are the highest segment at 7.6.

As with customer satisfaction, reviewing electricity usage information correlates with a higher-than-average score (7.5), while again about a third of EV drivers (31 percent) view their electricity providers are “extremely trustworthy”. The remaining three segments are all equal to or relatively close to the mean, with the Green Pioneers being slightly higher than the average at 7.5. Overall, minus the Comfort Seekers, consumers seem to view their providers as relatively trustworthy entities.

3. Electricity providers perform noticeably better on reliability.

Finally, respondents were asked to rate the reliability of power from their electricity providers, and somewhat surprisingly, consumers rated their providers noticeably higher in this area than in satisfaction and trustworthiness, giving them a 7.9 out of 10. While a previous survey found that 41 percent of Americans are more concerned with power outages today than 10 years ago, it seems like, in general, providers are doing a good job keeping the lights on.

Similar trends mentioned above regarding the Trusting Traditionalists, Green Pioneers, EV drivers and usage report reviewers also all track with reliability scores. However, with reliability, the Comfort Seekers are actually more or less at the mean (7.8), while the Connected Pragmatists – a younger, very tech-savvy segment – are significantly lower (7.4). These consumers rely heavily on technology in their daily lives, which may account for this perception.

Over the years, providers have taken significant steps to modernize the grid and better connect with their customers, and it seems that this has paid dividends. Consumers are mostly satisfied with their providers and largely view them as reliable, trustworthy entities. However, as consumers’ needs and wants continue to evolve, providers need to keep the consumer voice a key focus to maintain this hard-earned status.

To learn more about what Americans think grid modernization and their electricity providers, download the “Customer Satisfaction and the Smart Grid” report here.