Following four years of flat performance, residential customer satisfaction with the energy utilities industry rises 4% to an ACSI score of 75 (out of 100), according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®) Energy Utilities Study 2023-2024, as improvements across the customer experience outweigh concerns about rising utility rates.

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Satisfaction with natural gas and electricity is up. (Graphic: Business Wire)

“Providers appear to be improving the use of technology to interface with customers during outage periods and other complaint handling scenarios. This is essential to improving overall satisfaction and is a significant reason why the industry is trending in the right direction,” says Forrest Morgeson, Associate Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and Director of Research Emeritus at the ACSI. “However, despite the current momentum, energy utilities will continue to face challenges beyond their control, like extreme weather events that cause longer power outages. Combined with inflation, this creates an environment where maintaining strong customer relationships will be critical as the industry pushes toward rebuilding and strengthening infrastructure.”

Of the three utilities categories measured, cooperatives lead the way, up 5% to 78. Municipal energy utilities move into second place after surging 6% to 75, just ahead of investor-owned utilities, which climb 3% to 74. Meanwhile, satisfaction with natural gas, up 1% to 76, still outperforms electricity despite the latter increasing 3% to 74.

Atmos Energy sets a high bar, while PG&E makes the biggest leap

Natural-gas provider Atmos Energy takes its leadership position a notch higher this year, rising 4% to lead the way at 80 — a satisfaction level it hasn’t seen since 2018.

Five utilities share second place at 77: Berkshire Hathaway Energy (up 4%), Dominion Energy (up 5%), Duke Energy (up 5%), NextEra Energy (up 3%), and Southern Company (up 3%).

While Consolidated Edison sits just beneath this group, the utility improves 6% to 76. Despite finishing at or below the industry average, other big movers include National Grid, up 9% to 75, CPS Energy, up 7% to 73, and PG&E, which soars out of last place with a 14% gain to 72. The company improves its service reliability and power restoration far more than the industry as a whole.

Although most energy utilities experience burgeoning customer satisfaction, some slip. CenterPoint Energy dips 1% to 75, NiSource slides 3% to 73, DTE Energy falls 1% to 71, and Entergy stumbles 3% to a last-place score of 67.

Providers receive their strongest customer experience benchmarks for their ability to provide reliable electric service (82), mobile app quality (82), and mobile app reliability (82). Customers give strong marks for website satisfaction (80), and ease of understanding their bill (80).

Customers are less enthusiastic about providers’ efforts to support the local community (75) and green programs that impact the environment (74).

The ACSI Energy Utilities Study 2023-2024 is based on interviews with 28,887 residential customers, chosen at random and contacted via email between January 2023 and December 2023. Download the full study and follow the ACSI on LinkedIn and Twitter at @theACSI.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the data and information in this release without the express prior written consent of ACSI LLC.

About the ACSI

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®) has been a national economic indicator for over 25 years. It measures and analyzes customer satisfaction with approximately 400 companies in about 40 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies. Reported on a scale of 0 to 100, scores are based on data from interviews with roughly 200,000 customers annually. For more information, visit www.theacsi.org.

ACSI and its logo are Registered Marks of American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC.

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