Self-service saves power

By Staff Writer for Consology
Johannesburg, 22 May 2008

Utilities are urged to use self-service as a means to save money and power.

This is according to John Ziniades, CEO of Consology, who says: "In the wake of a power crisis that has shaken the local economy, the utilities responsible for generating, transmitting and distributing electricity are desperately urging their commercial and residential customers to cut back the amount of power that they use by 10% or more."

Ziniades believes employing self-service methods and technologies can greatly aid with this problem. "Self-service solutions allow consumers to interact and transact with the companies they do business with when it is convenient for them, using channels such as the Web, mobile, kiosks and interactive voice response."

Furthermore, he states that self-service addresses both customer requirements and corporate objectives by electronically enabling customer interactions that currently take place via the phone or paper.

"Customers can also check their accounts at the end of the month, and pay with a credit card or banking transfer with a few clicks," he says. "They can order new services, keep informed about planned and unplanned outages, learn more about a utility's pricing structures, report outages, look at historical billing and usage information online, initiate bill disputes and more, all without needing to call the contact centre and wait for 20 minutes for an operator to respond."

Besides supporting the power problem, self-service can enable financial advantages. "For utilities, self-service delivers a wealth of benefits, including better relationships with customers, cost-savings, and faster payments from customers. The costs of servicing customers are spiralling at utilities as their client bases grow and the pressure on their infrastructure increases.

"Self-service solutions can also streamline the payment process. Rather than waiting for a bill in the post, utilities can allow customers to view or receive their bills online, and then pay it using a variety of options," he concludes.