NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 26 – Kenya Power says it is planning to roll out a county structure, to devolve its key functions to enhance its responsiveness to existing and emerging customer needs.
The firm’s Managing Director and CEO Bernard Ngugi says the structure will handle functions such as operations and maintenance, customer service, inspection of installations and revenue collection.
The announcement was made during the launch of the *977# USSD code which is expected to enable the utility firm’s prepaid and postpaid customers to manage their bills.
Under the platform, the company’s 1.8 million post-paid customers can submit their meter readings to get their actual monthly bills.
The platform also enables customers can purchase tokens, report outages, apply for new electricity connections, and verify the identities of people presenting as employees or contractors of the company.
“We plan to use technology to complement these initiatives and free our field staff to verify the readings submitted by customers and carry out inspections to ensure that meters are in good condition,” he added.
The USSD code is part of innovative solutions that the Company is deploying to enhance service delivery and improve customer experience by promoting interaction in a more reliable, affordable, convenient and fast manner.
Currently, most customers access the Company’s services by calling the National Contact Centre or by physically visiting offices across the country.
The USSD code will decongest calls to the Call Centre because it provides Kenya Power’s customers with an alternative way to access the company’s services.
The *977# platform was piloted in March 2020 and recorded an average 13,849 interactions for the month. The monthly interactions through the code stood at 555,928 as at July 2020. The target is to attain 1.1 million interactions per month by the end of this financial year.
