Kenya Power has introduced a service, under the *977# USSD code, that will enable its prepaid and postpaid customers to manage their bills.
Under the new service, the Company’s 1.8 million post-paid customers can now take advantage of the self-read option on *977# to submit their meter readings to get their actual monthly bills.
Every month, customers who register for the self-read option will get a prompt asking them to submit their readings within the next 3 days.
The platform also enables pre-paid customers to purchase tokens and retrieve the last three purchased tokens, which is especially helpful in cases where the token messaging system is experiencing delays or when a customer has mistakenly deleted their token message.
By dialing *977#, customers can also report outages, apply for new electricity connections, and verify the identities of people presenting as employees or contractors of the company.
“The use of technology is one of the measures that the company is taking to enhance its responsiveness to existing and emerging customer needs. The company is also rolling out a county structure which is premised on devolving its key functions such as operations and maintenance, customer service, inspection of installations and revenue collection in order to enhance operational efficiency and increase customer responsiveness,” Managing Director and CEO, Bernard Ngugi said.
“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.
“We are keen on forging a proactive engagement with our customers in order to address the challenges they are facing. The USSD code is one of the tools we are deploying to empower our customers to address these challenges and improve customer satisfaction,” added Mr. Ngugi.
Besides the USSD code, customers can also access the Company’s services through MyPower app which is available on android and IOS. Tenants can register on the App and submit their meter readings on a monthly basis.
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.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com