Trustpower rated highly by customers

Sue Chetwin

Customer satisfaction with New Zealand's power companies has stalled, with less than half saying their supplier provided value for money.

The latest survey by Consumer NZ has revealed how companies were rated by their customers, with the new smaller entrants to the market scoring the highest for customer satisfaction.

Only 5 per cent of the nearly 8400 Consumer members who took part in the survey thought power companies had their customers' best interests at heart.

Tauranga-based Trustpower emerged with 75 per cent customer satisfaction, the best score from the country's biggest energy retailers. Genesis Energy was lowest on 64 per cent, followed by Contact Energy on 67 per cent and Mercury Energy and Meridian Energy both scoring 70 per cent satisfaction.

Consumer chief executive Sue Chetwin said 73 per cent rated their power companies' performances as good or very good - the same as last year's survey. She said Genesis Energy and Contact Energy had consistently scored below average in satisfaction surveys since 2010.

Contact Energy's communications manager Shaun Jones said they were disappointed at the score and were in touch with Consumer to learn more about the survey's findings in order to improve their service. No response was received from Genesis in time for publication.

Trustpower's commercial operations manager Chris O'Hara said Trustpower differed from many of its larger competitors by selling more power than it generated, leading to a more customer-focused business.

He said that Trustpower-owned Energy Direct scored an 89 per cent satisfaction because it was born out of Wanganui Gas and had long-standing relationships in the Wanganui area.

Energy Direct delivered a personal service which local people enjoyed but which was difficult to repeat on the scale of a national retailer, he said.

Independent energy analyst Molly Melhuish said the small companies came out on top because they were innovative. Newcomer Flick Electric top scored with 96 per cent, with Meridian-owned Powershop scoring 94 per cent satisfaction.