Kenya Power has today introduced a new USSD service, available via *977#, that will help customers manage their accounts with the power company.
The *977# USSD code will enable the company’s prepaid and postpaid customers to manage their accounts. Under the new service, the company’s 1.8 million post-paid customers can use 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 will also enable pre-paid customers to purchase tokens and retrieve the last three purchased tokens. This is 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 will also be able to 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,” said Managing Director and CEO, Bernard Ngugi.
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.
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# service 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.