The North of England’s gas distributer, Northern Gas Networks (NGN) has been named one of the UK’s top companies for customer satisfaction, according to a recent business benchmarking survey by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS).

NGN transports gas to 2.7 million homes in the North East, Northern Cumbria and much of Yorkshire.

As a public service organisation, NGN is assessed by the Institute every 18 months and customers asked to fill in a detailed questionnaire to outline levels of satisfaction with the services provided to them.

The questions are identical to those contained in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which scores and ranks companies across public, private and voluntary sectors twice a year.

NGN’s results put the gas transporter well above the UK national average of 77 out of 100, as outlined in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which is based on a survey of 10,000 customers.

The survey asks customers to rate organisations for a wide range of satisfaction priorities such as quality of information, speed of service and complaint handling across a range of platforms including in person, online, over the phone and in writing.

The latest index reveals NGN’s customer satisfaction scores have risen from 83.1 to 85.6 in the last 18 months, outperforming the Institute’s utility sector benchmark average by 12.8 points and the all-sector benchmark by 8.6 points.

NGN surpassed other organisations in the utilities sector such as United Utilities, Yorkshire Water and E.On, scoring particularly highly for competence of staff, helpfulness of staff, handling of enquiries, quality of information and being kept informed. The results place them second only to Utility Warehouse.

NGN’s customer comments included: “NGN have been excellent. On-site team exceptional. Couldn’t have been better” and “Really surprising that a utility company should provide such good customer service.”

Another said: “I have a disability, but the men made sure I had easy access to my home, moved my bins and carried my shopping in when I arrived home. Service was above and beyond and I couldn’t have been more grateful.”

These results shows NGN are continuing to raise the bar when it comes to ensuring customers receive top-rated service, having won 12 national UK customer and colleague experience awards since 2014.

Eileen Brown, Head of Customer Experience for NGN said: “We’re always looking at new ways of working to improve our customer experience and make life easier for our customers so I’m incredibly proud that the business has achieved such an amazing score and that our customers are rating us amongst the best of the best.”

Anyone that smells gas or suspects Carbon Monoxide should call the National Gas Emergency Service immediately on 0800 111 999. This line is in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.