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Sustainable Business Strategy 

Listening to our customers 

The AGL Customer Charter outlines what customers can expect from AGL, and provides a standard against which we measure our service. AGL’s performance against the Customer Charter is reported quarterly on our website. 

Customers 

## Customer Experience 

AGL is committed to continuing to improve levels of customer service. 

AGL measures customer satisfaction each quarter to gauge whether we are servicing customers to the standard we have committed to in our Customer Charter, and whether initiatives to improve customer service have been successful. 

During FY2011, AGL’s customer satisfaction score averaged 6.65, with a score of 6.67 in the fourth quarter of FY2011. The results reflect responses to the question of how satisfied customers are with the service provided by their energy supplier on a scale of 0 to 10 (where 0 is not satisfied, 5 is neutral and 10 is extremely satisfied). 

This is the first year that this measurement of customer satisfaction has been used and benchmarked against major competitors. In FY2012, AGL has set a target to have a better customer satisfaction score than its major competitors. 

## Customers in Hardship 

Energy prices are increasing, predominantly due to upgrades of distribution network infrastructure. While price increases affect all of AGL’s customers, low-income consumers are likely to be affected disproportionately. For some customers the affordability of energy will be impaired materially. 

AGL supports a ‘shared responsibility model’, whereby energy retailers, governments, communities and the wider energy industry collectively share responsibility for assisting customers who are experiencing financial hardship. 

AGL’s national hardship program, Staying Connected, is designed to support residential customers who are experiencing temporary or long-term financial hardship that make paying their energy bills difficult. 

At the end of the financial year, 8,652 customers were on the Staying Connected program, a decrease of 16.3% compared to the preceding year. The average level of energy debt among those Staying Connected participants was $1,658, up 20% from $1,382 in FY2010. 

Many customers with low levels of debt have successfully completed the program this year. This results in an increase in the average debt level of those remaining on the program. By bringing customers onto the program earlier (while their debt levels are relatively low), the average level of energy debt per customer will decline. 

AGL will continue to focus on the early identification of customers experiencing or likely to experience financial difficulties and help participants successfully return to a sustainable energy consumption and debt position. 

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