Number of complaints at Fluvius drops 5 per cent by 2024
Fluvius shares annual complaints analysis
Last year, Fluvius received 36 060 complaints. That is a decrease of 5 per cent first-line complaints and 2 per cent second-line complaints, compared to the previous year. This is according to the company's annual complaint analysis for 2024.
The annual complaints report provides an overview of complaints received, actions taken to address them, and steps taken by Fluvius to further improve processes and customer satisfaction.
Overall decrease in complaints
After years of increasing complaints due to higher energy bills and doubts about the digital meter, the overall number of complaints fell again last year for the first time since 2020. First-line complaints fell from 35 063 to 33 471 reports and second-line complaints from 2923 to 2569. In addition to Fluvius' efforts to improve services, more stable energy prices may also be partly behind this drop.
Customer satisfaction rises slightly
Customers also show slightly more satisfaction in 2024 than in 2023. Fluvius recorded a fairly constant overall satisfaction score, rising by 0.25% from 79.11% to 79.36%. In this survey, 15 000 customers who just came into contact with Fluvius participated. They said they were very satisfied with some specific processes such as 'Fault management' and 'Local production'. For instance, Fluvius put in place a user-friendly notification procedure for solar panels and was able to improve turnaround times for acceptance of a file. The smooth handling after notification of a failure is also viewed positively by customers.
More customer work, more complaints
Due to the energy transition, Fluvius is carrying out a lot of works, all over Flanders. The disruption associated with these works has an impact on the number of complaints. Think of the reinforcement of electricity grids, the full installation of digital electricity meters and the reinforcement of customer connections for, among other things, electric charging stations and heat pumps. As a result, in this domain, first-line complaints increase by 21% (from 10 714 in 2023 to 13 006 in 2024) and second-line complaints increase by 40% (from 429 in 2023 to 602 in 2024).
The grid operator recognises that there is still some way to go in proactive customer communication. Some concrete measures should further reduce the number of complaints in the future:
- Fluvius is committed to more and better communication to affected customers so that they receive clear information in advance about planned works and associated disruption.
- Fluvius plans its works in close consultation with cities and municipalities and the other utility companies to minimise disruption to residents. Clear site communication will play an important role in this.
- By introducing the Network Checker on the My Fluvius portal, customers will gain insight into the risk of voltage problems with solar panels.
Frank Vanbrabant, CEO Fluvius: "Fluvius is working hard on the networks of tomorrow. We are strengthening and expanding our grids to help realise energy transition and climate adaptation. We also invested heavily in 2024, resulting in, among other things, 4 million digital meters installed and 1.8 million metres of trenches dug. These are works from which, unfortunately, complaints can arise. We continuously adjust our processes to keep both disruption and complaints to an absolute minimum. We are not there yet, but the current complaints analysis already shows a favourable evolution for the first time in five years."
Onepager Jaaranalyse Klachten 2024.pdf
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Volledig document Jaaranalyse Klachten 2024.pdf
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Lara Lammens