Consumer confidence in utilities is falling, slipping to its lowest level in four years, or since Accenture's annual survey, "New Energy Consumer", was launched, involving 11.000 users in 21 countries. The share of respondents who trust utilities and believe they receive useful consumption information has dropped to 24% from 33% last year.
A very low level, which decreases further when looking at Italy, where the percentage of those who believe they are adequately informed by their energy suppliers has slipped to 13%, down by 4% compared to 2012.
In addition to trust, the level of consumer satisfaction is also down, falling to 47% globally, from 59%, and to 43% among Italians, compared to 56% in 2012. Although satisfaction and trust are at their lowest, the propensity to change of Italian consumers remains very low: just over one in ten (12%) would change supplier in the next 12 months.
73% of the consumers interviewed (80% among the Italian sample) would consider alternative suppliers, turning to the retail, telecommunications and web sectors for the purchase of electricity and energy-related products and services.
