The loyalty of E.ON’s mass-market customers improved slightly in our key markets in 2007 compared with 2006. Our customer loyalty index is based on an annual survey of our customers’ satisfaction. The survey asks customers four questions to which they respond with a number from 1 to 6, where 1 stands for very high and 6 stands for very low loyalty.

 

We succeeded in improving our customer loyalty, despite an environment of rising customer demands. We view it as a further step towards becoming a truly customer-oriented energy utility.

We’ve established periodic dialog forums in a number of our markets to get an even better feel for what our customers are thinking. The forums enable us to identify problems and misunderstandings early and work with customers to find solutions.

 

E.ON Nordic was Sweden’s first energy supplier to create a customer ombudsman and customer forums. The customer ombudsman talks with 150 to 200 customers a month, gathering suggestions and complaints which he then shares with the company. The ombudsman is becoming an increasingly popular contact person and assisted more than 2,200 customers in 2007. Customer forums are used to discuss customer-specific issues. The results are published on E.ON Nordic’s website, where users can read them and post their own opinions and wishes.

 

We take a similar approach in the United States. E.ON U.S. has a Consumer Advisory Panel, a cross-section of customers that meets four times a year to discuss customers’ wishes and concerns and ways E.ON can address them.