How the scores are worked out
This advice applies to England. See advice for See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Scotland, See advice for Wales
We compare energy suppliers' customer service by looking at data from a number of reliable sources. We publish data about suppliers with more than 25,000 customer accounts.
Data about complaints to third parties
We base our ratings on complaints made to:
the Citizens Advice Consumer Service
the Extra Help Unit
the Energy Ombudsman
Data about customer service, billing and switching
We use data from suppliers to work out:
their average call centre wait time - except time spent in sales lines
the number of emails they answered within 2 working days
their average response time for messages on social media - where they’re contacted more than 5% of the time through social media
the number of their customers who got a bill based on a meter reading in the past year - except prepayment customers
the number of switches completed within 15 working days of agreeing the contract
Data about customer guarantees
We base our ratings on suppliers’ membership of the Energy Switch Guarantee and the Vulnerability Commitment.
If a supplier is a member of the Energy Switch Guarantee, they have to meet certain criteria - such as completing 98% of switches within 5 working days. Find out more about the Energy Switch scheme on the Energy Switch Guarantee website.
If a supplier is a member of the Vulnerability Commitment, they have to promise to improve their support to vulnerable customers, who might be facing financial difficulties or illnesses. Find out more about the Vulnerability Commitment on the Energy UK website.
Suppliers score 3 points for membership of the Energy Switch Guarantee or the Vulnerability Commitment. If they're a member of both, their score is capped at 5 points. Trial members of the Energy Switch Guarantee score 2 points.
If we don't have data for your supplier
Suppliers are legally required to share the data we use in this rating. They also need to have a referral system to our consumer service.
If they don’t, we score them zero in categories related to these things.
We need suppliers to give us permission to publish data they share with us. If they don’t, you’ll only see a star rating.
How we come up with a star rating
We give energy suppliers a score out of 5 for each category. 5 is excellent and 1 is poor. Then we give them an overall star rating out of 5.
Category | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Category
Number of complaints per 10,000 customers |
5
5 or less |
4
5 to 15 |
3
15 to 30 |
2
30 to 55 |
1
More than 55 |
Category
Average call centre wait time (seconds) |
5
Less than 30s |
4
30s - 90s |
3
90s - 180s |
2
180s - 300s |
1
More than 300s |
Category
Emails responded to within 2 working days |
5
More than 95% |
4
95 - 80% |
3
80 - 60% |
2
60 - 40% |
1
Less than 40% |
Category
Average social media response time |
5
Less than 30 mins |
4
30 - 60 mins |
3
1 - 2 hours |
2
2 - 4 hours |
1
More than 4 hours |
Category
Switches completed within 15 working days |
5
More than 98% |
4
95 - 98% |
3
90 - 95% |
2
80 - 90% |
1
Less than 80% |
Category
Customers who had accurate bill in the past year |
5
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
Category
Customer guarantees |
5
Suppliers score 3 points each for membership of the Energy Switch Guarantee and membership of the Vulnerability Commitment (up to a maximum of 5 points). Trial members of the Energy Switch Guarantee score 2 points. |
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
Not all categories are equal. Some, like complaints, count more towards the final score than others.
This is how we work out the overall scores.
Category | Measured as | Counts towards overall score |
---|---|---|
Category
Complaints to third parties |
Measured as
Complaints to third parties |
Counts towards overall score
35% |
Category
Billing |
Measured as
Bill accuracy |
Counts towards overall score
20% |
Category
Customer service |
Measured as
Average call centre wait time |
Counts towards overall score
15% |
Category
Email response time |
Measured as
10% or 5% if they’re also scored on social media response time |
Counts towards overall score
|
Category
Social media response time - if contacted more than 5% of the time through social media |
Measured as
5% |
Counts towards overall score
|
Category
Switching |
Measured as
Switches completed within 15 working days |
Counts towards overall score
10% |
Category
Customer guarantees |
Measured as
Membership of a range of schemes |
Counts towards overall score
10% |
To measure bill accuracy, suppliers must have been supplying more than 5,000 customer accounts for 12 months.
Some suppliers have mostly customers who pay by prepayment. Suppliers with fewer than 5,000 billed customers do not receive a billing score, and are scored on the other categories only.
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