Botswana Power Corporation Chief Executive Office Dr. Stefan Schwarzfischer has said the idea of Instant Quotation inspires new levels of customer service and challenges BPC staff to be creative about solutions to customers and ensuring customer satisfaction. Speaking at the Instant Quotation Launch held in Gaborone and Francistown recently, Dr. Schwarzfischer said that the new quotation process is a great improvement of the connection process and also an important step in the re-engineering of BPC.
“Instant Quotation is a new service whereby the customer can come to any customer service center offering the product and on the spot get a connection quotation and if they like the quotation the customer can pay on the spot for BPC to start working, cutting the turn-around-time for a quotation from 32 days to about 1 hour”, explained Dr. Schwarzfischer. He also that the Corporation will cut down the 80 days of connection to only two days and all these efforts are aimed at improving customer satisfaction, citing that customers are an important stakeholder to BPC as the contribute immensely to the company’s goal of Financial Turnaround.
When speaking about creativity in providing solutions to the customer Dr. Schwarzfischer further said that the Corporation can for example optimise resources on the ground and at the same time improve customer satisfaction. He gave a scenario which he said can be a great addition to this new process of Instant Quotation. “If tomorrow we have BPC resources or the contractor connecting customers in one area, why not announce to customers upfront through the media and Facebook in that area and tell them that if you come and apply for electricity and get everything settled today, we will connect you tomorrow”, he said, when giving an example of how the instant quotation process can further improve.
Both programmes in both locations included a speech by the Customer Service Managers- Gift Thandazani Pelaelo (South) and Germinah Modimoopelo (Central & North). For her part- she said that the Instant Quotation service is in response to customer needs as customers now seek express services. “Since the implementation of Instant Quotation in Francistown, the area received 570 applications in the period between April and June 2018, and 360 received instant quotation, with 354 customers paying instantly, thus you can see the desire from customers to receive express service”, she also said. Modimooopelo further said that piloting of instant connection is underway, and all this efforts are to improve customer service. She went on to explain that instant quotation roll out will go beyond the ten places that rolled out in the first phase saying that the intention is to rollout the program in Maun, Jwaneng, Tsabong, Letlhakane, Mahalapye, Palapye, Gumare, Kasane and Gantsi.
Customer Services Manager (South)- Mr Gift T. Pelaelo, gave an operational overview during the launch in Gaborone, highlighting that the Corporation has made an improvement on overall service delivery and that the Instant Quotation service is moving into a one stop service shop, such that a customer in Shakawe will not have to travel to Maun to get help.
Customer Service Coordinators Ruth Mmereki (Francistown) and Masego Garogwe (Gaborone) walked the guests who included the media, members of the public, city leadership through the process of instant quotation so that they can appreciate the customer journey in getting an instant quotation.
