Kenya Power is planning to increase the postpaid customers reading their meters to reduce cases of billings complaints. The company plans to increase customers self reading their meters from the current 145,000 to 200,000 during the current financial year.
The company introduced the self-reading service last year and is available via the USSD code *977#. Through the USSD code, postpaid customers can register to read their meters at the end of their billing cycle and submit the readings for accurate billing.
“Self-reading of meters will empower our postpaid customers to proactively engage with us on all matters that relate to billing for their electricity consumption. It is targeted to enhance satisfaction among our customers through accurate and timely billing which will eliminate bill estimations and therefore reduce customer complaints arising from the same,” said Eng. Muli.
Currently, 2.1 million customers are on postpaid billing while 6.8 million customers are on prepaid billing (tokens). Apart from self-reading, the USSD Code also enables prepaid customers to retrieve the last three purchased tokens, which is helpful especially when customers want to make reference to their electricity consumption trends.
Customers can also use the platform to report power outages for quick resolution, confirm the authenticity of persons presenting themselves to them as Kenya Power staff. They can also use it to track the progress of their connectivity application.
During the last financial year, the monthly average customer transaction on the *977# platform stood at 1.6 million. The company is targeting to increase these transactions to an average of 2 million by the end of the current financial year.