Sarawak Government officials including state secretary Datuk Amar Mohd Morshidi Abdul Ghani (right), Kuching City North Commission Datuk Bandar Datuk Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai (second left, in beige suit) and Chinese community leader Temenggong Lu Kim Yong (third left) at the launch of the Sarawak Energy Customer Care Centre in Kuching yesterday. Also seen here is the power company's chief of corporate services Aisah Eden (second right)

KUCHING: Sarawak Energy has launched its Customer Care Centre at 1300-88-3111 with promises of calls being answered within 20 seconds.

The centre, housed on the second floor of the old Wisma Sesco, along Jalan Bako near here, is staffed by at least 10 telephone operators during the day, six after evening time and four during the midnight shift.

At the launch yesterday, reporters and state officials were told that the centre was designed as a one-stop centre with services based on a “first call resolution” model.

“First call resolution means resolving enquiries without further escalations — without being passed to another person on the other end of the line,” said a company press release.

“The customer care agents also monitor and follow-up upon all enquiries. The centre handles technical, and billing and customer services. Technical enquiries include reporting on power outage, faulty street light, power quality issues and accidents like tree branches falling on power lines.”

The centre is open 24 hours daily. Its communication methods include text messages, e-mails and faxes.

The centre’s focal points are two wall-mounted large size flat screen monitors. Each monitor rotates between a series of live feeds, including the total number of complaints, complaints pertaining to faulty street lighting and power outages.

Each of the live feed includes a “Service Level” marker, showing a percentage. The higher the percentage, the more calls are answered with the 20-second benchmark. (The service level shown during the media tour showed a reading of around 90%.)

The other monitor permanently displays monthly statistics, including charts on calls divided into types of complaints, and also an “Average Handling Time” by individual staff. The lower the average handling time the better, since it is assumed that short handling time implies solving enquiries quicker. Sarawak Energy corporate services chief Aisah Eden told reporters yesterday that the centre had received 20,000 calls since trials began last Sept 28.

“We’ve received an average of 220 complaints a day. There are surges in calls during power outages. Depending on the size of the area affected, we have received up to 1,000 calls within the morning shift,” she said.

“I like to think the response since we began has been quite positive. At the same time, we’re still maintaining the service counters because we know some customers still prefer it.”

Aisah said 43% of enquiries had been on customer services and billings, followed by technical queries and complaints like power outage. According to the press statement, the journey of setting up the Sarawak Energy Customer Care Centre began in 2011.

“By May last year, the tender was awarded to the consultant of the Contact Centre Solutions. The business requirement and technology transfer was completed last August, while at the same time, the whole group of the customer care executives went through two months of intensive training on software and hardware handling.”

The services were extended to Serian and Sri Aman last October.

“As part of the roadmap, there are plans for the centre to provide e-services such as online bill enquiry, notification on planned shutdowns, online payment, e-billing statements and e-applications.

“There are also plans to activate mobile phone text messaging services for outages and street lighting faults. Our centre presently features the latest in contact centre technologies, including intelligent queuing call back feature and broadcast announcements, which caters to the surge in calls during outages.”

Aside from the hotline, the Customer Care Centre can be reached at customercare@sarawakenergy.com.my.

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