City Power, which came under fire this week after its call centre could not cope with volumes after a blackout, is set to launch a dedicated number during the Fifa Soccer World Cup games.
City Power's new centre, which will only be live for the duration of the event, will allow Johannesburg residents to report outages and receive information on when power will be restored, reports Eyewitness News.
The news comes after several residents in the city complained they were cut off when trying to contact the utility on Tuesday, after a widespread four-hour power failure. ITWeb was cut off at least four times when calling the centre.
City Power GM of communications Sol Masolo says people were cut off because of the high volumes of callers when the power went out. He says, however, that this does not indicate a “serious problem”.
“Calls go to the Joburg call centre and get rerouted [to City Power]. We haven't been experiencing serious problems, but when we get great numbers of calls coming in, that's when we lose calls,” says Masolo.
Eyewitness News reports that the utility expects its call centre to be able to handle volumes once it has been upgraded. It quoted City Power CEO Silas Zimu as saying this would take pressure off Joburg Connect when tourists arrive for the games. Zimu was not available for comment this morning.
The soccer tournament will be held for four weeks in June and July, which are among Johannesburg's coldest months when power usage surges as people turn on heaters.
Johannesburg is moving its disparate legacy systems onto an integrated SAP platform that will ensure greater functionality in metered services, billing, collections, customer service and payment processes.
Part of the upgrade includes the Joburg Connect call centre, which is expected to be completed in the next two months.
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