Customer reviews

In this murky climate of fake news, alleged Russian political interference, international digital terrorism etcetera, we could all be forgiven for being a touch cynical when it comes to defining what exactly is the truth. In 2020, who can you really trust?

Trustpilot

The vast majority of energy companies use Trustpilot as a platform for customer reviews. Bulb, Octopus, So Energy, Avro, and many more all advertise their Trustpilot ratings as part of their marketing strategy and pro-actively ask their customers for reviews. We do the same and spend time inviting all our existing customers to share their experiences with others. – Both good and bad.

If you saw the recent Fake Reviews exposé you could be forgiven for taking Trustpilot reviews with a pinch of salt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VMSMjF_b_Y

Trustpilot’s reputation has certainly taken a hit but it’s not just them who are affected by this. We have been accused of filtering and deleting 1-star reviews, enticing customers to leave 5-star reviews in exchange for money, not to mention paying vast amounts to ‘Fake Review Farms’ to boost our ranking. Obviously, I’ll tell you this is all gobbledygook - but, how can you be sure? If we were opting for these kind-of-tactics, we would hardly brag about it now, would we?

Can you trust a Fox?

Here at Outfox the Market, we like to think we’re pretty open and honest. You have probably heard we had a few issues at the end of 2018 and made some business decisions that had a significant effect on our reputation. It was a difficult time for both the business and more importantly our customers. It also led to a swathe of negative online reviews. Along with the very much deserved, you’ll stumble across others that are completely fabricated.

We have worked hard to rebuild our reputation and we’re proud of the improvements we have made over the last 18 months or so. We still have a way to go and will continue to become better with all aspects of our service. In the interests of transparency, I thought it timely to share some facts and figures when it comes to Trustpilot.

As you can see, we’re doing ok but with definite room for improvement. Overall (at the time of writing) we are rated ‘Excellent’ from a total of 22,563 reviews with a Trust Score of 4.5.

Good and Bad

It’s positive that over 14,500 reviewers have had an 'Excellent' experience yet regrettably, 3,086 reviewers have found our service ‘Bad’. Whilst this is disappointing we welcome these reviews as much as the nice ones. The majority of this feedback can be attributed to the difficulty’s customers faced in 2018 and early 2019, but it is vital we continue to learn when things don’t go to plan. It’s the only way to become better at what we do. If you are not happy, please do let us know. Despite the online accusations, it's pretty evident we will not delete negative reviews.

The competition.

The infographic below shows how we compare with other energy suppliers.

When it comes to others, M&S Energy (a white label of Octopus Energy) is at the top of the Energy Supplier category with a Trust Score of 4.9 from 1331 reviews. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.mandsenergy.com

Bulb has grown massively over the last two years and is placed 3rd with a 4.8 Trust score from 55, 476 reviews. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bulb.co.uk. –

Octopus are also popular with their customers with a 4.8 Trust score from over 30,000 reviews!

We’re pleased to be in the top 10 of green energy suppliers and are aiming for at least a bronze by the end of the year!

At the other end of the scale (and with no judgement from us) both Ecotricity and Together Energy are rated ‘Poor’. Interestingly, just like us both companies actively seek reviews from their customers proving this method does not guarantee favourable results.

We’re confident our ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot rating is reflected on other platforms. Our Facebook presence is very positive and our official complaints record has also improved significantly.

Are we perfect? No, will we make mistakes? Yes, Will we learn and take onboard all feedback we receive? Definitely.

Trustpilot are making a number of changes to their security policies to rebuild the trust in their brand.

You can read more here.

https://www.trustpilot.com/blog/trends-in-trust/our-trust-promise?utm_source=totango&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=trusted_platform_releases_july2020