MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Management Should Create a Forum for Sharing Experiences

CCD: Abdulrahman Zayyad, you are the Supervisor Askolaye Service Center, tell us how you manage this place.

AZ: As a supervisor I oversee the activities of all staff under my service center. I make sure they do their work according to the company's laid down rules and ensure that customers get supply, receive their bills at the right time and pay their bills in full. 

CCD: What would you consider your highpoints since becoming a Supervisor?

AZ: One of the greatest things that I feel I have achieved is converting a Commercial customer to a Maximum Demand customer at Isah Kaita Feeder. A customer, B. T. Magaji, was a single-phase commercial customer; I converted him to a three-phase commercial customer and to a Maximum Demand Customer. 

Also, when I resumed duty in Askolaye Feeder on 17 August the previous month collection was 3.8million Naira and by end of the month I was able to collect 7.6 million Naira, which shows that we made a difference of 109%.

We have also been able to improve on our relationship with customers and by so doing we have been able to convert a lot of non-paying customers to paying customers. 

CCD: What are the challenges of manning a Service Center like yours?

AZ: The biggest challenge is the way we are being treated when we visit some customers; we are being treated with aggression.

CCD: The Company has just introduced a newly redesigned bill, how are the customers responding to it?

AZ: The new design has some good features even though there are some setbacks.  It comes with information relevant to the customer in a self-explanatory manner; for instance, it includes the name of the Marketer, Service Center, Feeder, energy consumed plus the VAT.

For the setback: the new bill does not include information on the customers' previous payment. This was why some customers who had no outstanding got bills showing that they have not paid. This situation caused a lot of problems.

CCD: As a Supervisor, how do you manage relationship with customers and the staff you work with?

AZ: As a leader you have to have so many abilities, and one of these, is ability to manage people. Sometimes, people come with problems that are personal while others are related to the job; I still have to show understanding and support. 

More so, we normally have meetings almost every day, be it personally or as a group. If any of my staff has an issue in his cluster, I will discuss with the individual so that we can both proffer a solution. 

For aggrieved customers, we make all necessary effort to explain their consumption to them, how we came up with the bill, how bills are being accumulated, how to clear their outstanding, where and how to lodge in complaints. That is how a cordial relationship is built.

CCD: Do you have your unique strategies in achieving the corporate objective of the Company?

AZ: For those of us at the supervisory level, all we need to do is adhere to the company's rules and regulations. I think there is nothing extra to add other than ensuring proper billing, that bills distributed are collected hundred percent, Pre-paid Meters are monitored and sensitizing the customers on relevant matters.

CCD: What advice do you have for management?

AZ: My advice to the management is that there should be a forum where we can share our experiences in the field especially the issue of security.

To my colleague I am appealing to each staff to do what is expected of him/her in order to take this company to greater heights because if this company succeeds it is not just the management that would take the credit, we will take the credit too and history will never forget us.