British Gas, an energy supplier owned by Centrica in the U.K., has implemented a "customer board" to receive feedback, improve its service and products, and to help put customers first.

British Gas recently gave an overview of the customer board in a blog post, and recently published a report on the customer board's activities.

Among other things, the customer board has helped British Gas simplify its bills, make "tariffs" (or pricing plans) easier to understand, and develop innovative products responsive to customer needs (such as "Hive Active Heating", a program which allows remote control of the customer's thermostat via smartphone).

The customer board has 11 members, chaired by Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at U.K. broker/comparison site uSwitch.com.

While we are aware of surveys and focus groups used by U.S. retail suppliers, we are unaware of any formal or "standing" customer board similar to that used by British Gas. We do understand TXU Energy has a low-income advisory board, but have not seen it described as addressing TXU's service and products holistically as the British Gas customer board does.

It seems to us rolling out a customer board in the wake of the polar vortex would have been a savvy move for retail suppliers.