The Office of Utilities Regulation [OUR] has highlighted systemic gaps in customer service delivery by utility providers.
The OUR says customers are having to deal with long wait times, poor communication, and poor physical facilities.
The findings are outlined in the OUR's latest annual Mystery Shopping research, conducted late last year.
The OUR says common issues observed include inadequate customer service engagement, inconsistencies in communication, and poor physical and digital infrastructure.
The report indicated that, while some agents demonstrated professionalism and knowledge, customer experience was undermined by inefficiencies, lack of accessibility, unclear processes, and poor responsiveness.
The utility regulator says the research enables it to assess the quality of customer service offered by the regulated utility providers across the various channels, inform its engagement and guide its regulatory interventions.
The 2024 findings revealed an average score of 66 per cent, up from the 54 per cent performance level of 2023 across in-store, call centres, websites, social media, and the mobile app.
The best-performing providers were FLOW and JPS, at 70 per cent.
The OUR says utility providers could benefit from adopting standardised practices, where feasible, enhancing physical and digital infrastructure, and focusing on customer-centric engagement to transform customer experiences
The data collection for this Mystery Shopping exercise started August last year and ended in October.
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