Customer trust in utilities has hit a historic high due to the industry’s effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the Cogent Syndicated Brand Trust Index posts a record high score of 696 (on a 1,000-point scale), with 44 utilities being named the 2020 Most Trusted Brands, having scored highest on the Brand Trust Index among the 140 utilities surveyed. These and other findings are from the 2020 Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Residential study from Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm.
The Brand Trust Index is a composite score of utility performance on customer focus, community support, communications effectiveness, reliable quality, environmental dedication and reputation. Although customer trust in utilities had been increasing before the pandemic, the industry’s effective response to COVID-19 accelerated this trend. Customers rate the industry a very high 7.20 (on a 10-point scale) when asked how responsibly their utility responded to the COVID-19 crisis. The more responsive a utility was to COVID-19, the more trust customers place in them. And half of utility customers “strongly agree” their utility responded well to the pandemic.
“It is clear from our research the utility industry has done a fantastic job supporting customers through the pandemic. This has won utilities the trust and goodwill of their customers,” said Chris Oberle, senior vice president at Escalent. “The utility industry is used to handling crises and quickly provided customer support. Awareness of utility COVID-19 efforts was supported by higher communications recall, the high quality of customer service interactions, and providing more value-added recommendations during service.”
Escalent would like to congratulate the 2020 Most Trusted Utility Brands that have supported their customers through an unprecedented crisis and have built goodwill and leadership in their communities.
Cogent Syndicated 2020 Most Trusted Utility Brands | |
AEP Ohio | NIPSCO |
Ameren Illinois | NW Natural |
BGE | OPPD |
Black Hills Energy – Midwest | OUC |
Cascade Natural Gas | Peoples Gas |
CenterPoint Energy – South | Pepco |
Columbia Gas – South | Philadelphia Gas Works |
Columbia Gas of Ohio | Piedmont Natural Gas |
CPS Energy | PPL Electric Utilities |
Dayton Power & Light | PSE&G |
Delmarva Power | Puget Sound Energy |
DTE Energy | RG&E |
Duke Energy Midwest | Salt River Project |
Duquesne Light Company | Seattle City Light |
Elizabethtown Gas | TECO Peoples Gas |
Florida City Gas Company | Texas Gas Service |
Florida Power & Light | UGI Utilities |
Idaho Power | Washington Gas |
Kentucky Utilities | Wisconsin Public Service |
MidAmerican Energy | Xcel Energy – Midwest |
National Fuel Gas | Xcel Energy – South |
New Jersey Natural Gas | Xcel Energy – West |
Following charts reflect regional peer benchmark Brand Trust scores among the 140 utilities surveyed. These scores reflect the amount of trust customers have with each utility.
East Region Utilities Brand Trust Performance | |||||
Combination Service (Electric and Natural Gas) |
Electric Service | Natural Gas Service | |||
PSE&G | 717 | PPL Electric Utilities | 719 | Washington Gas | 738 |
RG&E | 712 | Duquesne Light Company | 705 | Philadelphia Gas Works | 728 |
Delmarva Power | 711 | Pepco | 700 | Elizabethtown Gas | 727 |
BGE | 698 | Penelec | 698 | New Jersey Natural Gas | 726 |
Con Edison | 693 | Green Mountain Power | 693 | UGI Utilities | 725 |
PECO | 691 | Atlantic City Electric | 684 | National Fuel Gas | 724 |
National Grid | 683 | Penn Power | 677 | South Jersey Gas Company | 703 |
Eversource | 681 | West Penn Power | 674 | Peoples | 689 |
NYSEG | 678 | PSEG Long Island | 671 | Columbia Gas – East | 659 |
Met-Ed | 669 | ||||
Appalachian Power | 659 | ||||
Mon Power | 658 | ||||
Potomac Edison | 647 | ||||
Jersey Central Power & Light | 644 | ||||
Central Maine Power | 556 | ||||
Scoring based upon 1,000-point maximum scale |
Midwest Region Utilities Brand Trust Performance | ||||||
Combination Service (Electric and Natural Gas) |
Electric Service | Natural Gas Service | ||||
Black Hills Energy – Midwest | 718 | AEP Ohio | 724 | Columbia Gas of Ohio | 747 | |
MidAmerican Energy | 714 | Dayton Power & Light | 718 | Peoples Gas | 733 | |
DTE Energy | 713 | OPPD | 714 | CenterPoint Energy – Midwest | 721 | |
Xcel Energy – Midwest | 707 | ComEd | 701 | Nicor Gas | 700 | |
Ameren Illinois | 705 | Ameren Missouri | 698 | Dominion Energy Ohio | 698 | |
Wisconsin Public Service | 704 | Toledo Edison | 689 | Spire Missouri – East | 689 | |
NIPSCO | 702 | Ohio Edison | 672 | Kansas Gas Service | 684 | |
Duke Energy Midwest | 699 | Indianapolis Power & Light | 662 | Citizens Energy | 671 | |
Consumers Energy | 687 | Evergy | 659 | Atmos Energy – Midwest | 670 | |
We Energies | 678 | Indiana Michigan Power | 659 | Spire Missouri – West | 666 | |
Alliant Energy | 671 | The Illuminating Company | 655 | |||
Vectren | 655 | |||||
Scoring based upon 1,000-point maximum scale |
South Region Utilities Brand Trust Performance | |||||
Combination Service (Electric and Natural Gas) |
Electric Service | Natural Gas Service | |||
CPS Energy | 715 | OUC | 752 | TECO Peoples Gas | 784 |
Louisville Gas & Electric | 689 | Kentucky Utilities | 751 | Columbia Gas – South | 757 |
Dominion Energy South Carolina | 659 | Xcel Energy – South | 734 | Piedmont Natural Gas | 750 |
MLGW | 633 | Florida Power & Light | 732 | Florida City Gas Company | 739 |
Nashville Electric Service | 717 | Texas Gas Service | 735 | ||
Georgia Power | 716 | CenterPoint Energy – South | 734 | ||
TECO Tampa Electric | 710 | Atmos Energy – South | 728 | ||
Public Service Company of Oklahoma | 708 | Oklahoma Natural Gas | 726 | ||
OG&E | 707 | Virginia Natural Gas | 725 | ||
Southwestern Electric Power Company | 707 | Chattanooga Gas Company | 712 | ||
Entergy Mississippi | 700 | Spire South | 708 | ||
Mississippi Power | 699 | Dominion Energy North Carolina | 696 | ||
JEA | 697 | Spire Mississippi | 674 | ||
Entergy Louisiana | 696 | Spire Gulf Coast | 636 | ||
Dominion Energy Virginia | 694 | ||||
Alabama Power | 694 | ||||
Entergy Arkansas | 687 | ||||
Entergy Texas | 685 | ||||
Gulf Power | 681 | ||||
Duke Energy Carolinas | 680 | ||||
Duke Energy Florida | 675 | ||||
El Paso Electric | 674 | ||||
Austin Energy | 671 | ||||
Duke Energy Progress | 662 | ||||
Entergy New Orleans | 648 | ||||
Kentucky Power | 621 | ||||
Scoring based upon 1,000-point maximum scale |
West Region Utilities Brand Trust Performance | |||||
Combination Service (Electric and Natural Gas) |
Electric Service | Natural Gas Service | |||
Xcel Energy – West | 719 | Idaho Power | 727 | NW Natural | 766 |
Puget Sound Energy | 699 | Seattle City Light | 723 | Cascade Natural Gas | 748 |
Avista | 692 | Salt River Project | 721 | SoCalGas | 732 |
NorthWestern Energy | 689 | SMUD | 699 | Intermountain Gas Company | 730 |
SDG&E | 685 | Portland General Electric | 693 | Southwest Gas | 725 |
Black Hills Energy – West | 604 | Tucson Electric Power | 685 | Dominion Energy – West | 708 |
PG&E | 579 | Southern California Edison | 682 | New Mexico Gas Company | 680 |
NV Energy | 681 | ||||
Pacific Power | 680 | ||||
Rocky Mountain Power | 678 | ||||
PNM | 665 | ||||
Los Angeles Department of Water & Power |
658 | ||||
APS | 634 | ||||
Scoring based upon 1,000-point maximum scale |
Escalent conducted surveys among 70,438 residential electric, natural gas and combination utility customers of the 140 largest US utility companies (based on residential customer counts). The sample design uses a combination of quotas and weighting based on US census data to ensure a demographically balanced sample of each evaluated utility’s customers based on age, gender, income, race and ethnicity. Utilities within the same region and of the same type (e.g., electric-only providers) are given equal weight to balance the influence of each utility’s customers on survey results. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.
Click below for more information on the study.