MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Customers' Service Unit is the Mediator Between the Company and the Customers - Khadijat Alabi Kemi

CCD:Briefly tell us about yourself

KAK: My name is Khadijat Alabi Kemi, a native of Moro Local Government of Kwara State. I was born on 1st August 1979 in Kaduna State, I attended Trinity Nursery and Primary School Ilorin, I did my Junior Secondary at Command Secondary School in Kaduna, later I returned back to Ilorin for my Senior Secondary School Education, were I attended Government High School Ilorin. After I graduated from the Secondary School I proceeded to University of Ilorin were I studied BSc. Ed Economics. I am married with kids.

CCD:When did you join the services of Kaduna Electric?

KAK: I started my career with NEPA (Kaduna Zone) in 2004, later that same year it became PHCN, I worked for 11 years in the sector until the privatization of the electricity sector that took place and we became Kaduna Electric in 2015.

CCD: What did your job role entails?

KAK: I am the Team Lead, Customer Service, Kebbi Area Office, amongst my responsibilities as a Team Lead, is to coordinate and supervise all the customer service representatives by ensuring prompt resolution of customer complaints, through investigating the cause of the complaint and escalating such complaints to the concern department with the aim to amicably resolve same.

Rendition of monthly and analysis of complaints report. Creating awareness to the general public by organizing customer/community engagement forum to educate and enlighten them on energy management, redress mechanism i.e procedure to be followed when they have a complaint.

CCD: Dealing with Customers complaints is a very serious and challenging, how are you synergizing with other departments in resolving customer’s complaints?

KAK: The process of escalating customer complaints to other departments has been made easier by introducing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application whereby you can just assign a ticket of your complaint to different Agents and Teams online, where anyone can login and see even the aggrieved customer will get an alert. This process ensures that no complaints is left out or go unnoticed. 

CCD: What plans do you have in place?

KAK: Prioritizing the usage of the Customer Relationship Management application (CRM) by all Customer Service Representatives and other departmental staff makes everything easier to everyone.

CCD: How challenging is your office?

KAK: The office is challenging because customer service representative’s serves as mediators between the customer and the Company, and in a situation whereby small issues that can be resolved amicably by the sales representatives and engineers are escalated as a result of misguided utterances by our staff. There is need for staff to adhere strictly to the provisions of the Company’s aims and objectives and also other guidelines of NERC, particularly the customer rights and obligations.

CCD: What is your advice to the management and staff?

KAK: My advice to the Management is to motivate the staff to fulfil their tasks and achieve the Company’s desired goals. As for the staff, they should be more dedicated to their job, they should also conduct themselves in an ethical manner such that the public will change their perception on the way they operate.

KADUNA ELECTRIC NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 1ST EDITION

Photos from Customer Service Week...

2019 Customers' Service Week: Kaduna Electric Rewards Loyal Customers, Donates Essential Supplies to Needy

By Asma'u Mohammed

As parts of activities marking this year's Customers' Services Week, the management of Kaduna Electric organised customers appreciation day where some loyal customers were rewarded for their loyalty to the brand. 

In the same vein, the Company also donated food items, clothing and other essential supplies to orphanages and other less previledge members of the society. 

The exercise, which kicked off on Monday, 8th October, 2019 was celebrated across the eleven Area Offices and the Head Office. 

The theme of this year's celebration which was "the Magic of Service", tried to highlight the importance of customers and the people who serve and support customers on a daily basis.

It is also aimed at motivating and rewarding customers, customer service personnel, and customer experience to get feedback for improved services. 

A statement by the Head, Corporate Communications, Abdulazeez Abdullahi said "during the course of the weeklong event, Kaduna Electric had leveraged the opportunity to educate customers on the MAP scheme, Safety measures as well as the need to safeguard electricity asset and report any staff who display any fraudulent activities".

Part of the activities was visit to AL-IHSAN Orphanage at Tirkania, Kaduna where the Company donated food items, clothing other essential.

The Company's spokesman described the gesture as a response to the Company's established tradition of providing support and assistance to communities within the Company's franchise area.

Receiving the items on behave of the beneficiaries, Malama Firdausi thanked the Management and Staff of Kaduna Electric for the companionate act, she took time to explain to the team, the activities of the orphanages and called on other cooperate organization and well meaning  individuals to support the orphans.

According to her, "these children are orphans, we must collectively support them and ensure that they have the qualitative education that every child deserve to support themselves in the future.

Kaduna Electric Holds Another Round of Training for Pilot Franchisees

By Ruqayya Hamisu Abubakar

Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company has conducted another training session for pilot Franchisees of Dankande, Rigasa/Makarfi Road and Kafanchan Communities all in Kaduna State. 

The two franchisees, are Itatia Gobal Services and Sea Jewel Limited.

Mr Victor Mokolo form Billing said the aim of the training is to intimate the Franchisees on the expected roles, duties and obligations of the prospective  Franchisees and what is being expected from them within their operational area. "Each franchisee is expected to meet its performance threshold and comply with all regulatory provisions of the Nigerian Electricity market ", he said.                                                                                                                He also shared knowledge of bills distribution, how electricity is being distributed to both pre-paid and postpaid customers and ensuring billing efficiency as well as, how bills are printed and monitoring of outstanding.

On how customers are to be approached, Mr Victor Makolo  called on the prospective Franchisee to always advice customers experiencing over billing to write directly to the Company for proper Load Assessment. He said cases of non-reflection of payment is being done only when the circle is in run through . All complaints entries that comes into the Company goes directly to Quality Check/ Control room for proper adjustment.

In her presentation, Mrs Zainab Audu from Finance Department discussed, how payment can be done on App, through cash or P.O.S and how the account is being managed from the Department. 

According to her "Franchisees duty is to collect payment on Energy consumed". 

 She also disclosed that reports are expected on weekly basis while reconciliation report is expected monthly

MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Safety Should not be an After Thought, but Our Culture - Abdulaziz S. Ahmad.

CCD: Can you briefly tell us about yourself?

ASA: My name is Abdulaziz Sanusi Ahmad, I am a graduate of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pure Chemistry. I have General HSE and HSE Competency Development Training (Level 3) Certificate, NNPC Kaduna Routing and Switching Cisco Networking Academy ABU Zaria. Presently I am the Safety Officer, Sokoto Area Office. I am happily married and blessed with one kid.

 CCD: When did you join the service of the Company?

ASA: I joined the service of Kaduna Electric in September 2015.

CCD: What are your primary responsibility as a Safety Officer?

ASA: My responsibilities includes among others, preparing work plan of HSE activities for the Area Office and corresponding budget/ cost implication, monitoring and advising on the implementations of the Corporate Policy on Occupational Health, Safety and Environment, liaising with the Technical department to design job procedures base on job safety and hazard analysis (JSA/JHA), carrying out monthly safety inspection of plants/equipment within the Area Office, carrying out HSE enlightenment within the Area Office, ensuring that no work is permitted or allowed until it has met up with safety standard, ensuring regular maintenance of safety and firefighting equipment within the Area Office, reporting accidents within 12 hours to Area Manager and Head office Safety Department and carrying out preliminary technical investigation and maintain record, render monthly accident returns to Head office,  as well as monitor compliance to HSE policy, and NERC Health and Safety Code.

CCD: What is the difficult part of being a safety officer?

ASA: One of the major challenges is inculcating safety culture in the workforce. There is this erroneous thought that safety provide no direct effect on the company financial gain. The only way we can contribute towards the Company profit is to lower liability.

Secondly, nobody likes the Safety Officer in response to his approach in field/ employee safety initiative compliance issues. 

CCD: Team work is one of the core values do you consider yourself a team player?

ASA: Yes of course, you see Teams succeed when members have commitment to common objective, when there is defined roles and responsibilities, effective decision system brings efficient work, procedures and skills such as communication skills, relationship skills and leadership skills I believe I am a team player with ability to work and influence a positive result in Sokoto Area Office.

CCD: Do you have any suggestion on how we can improve on safety measure?

ASA: Of course yes, one by creating a plan for improving Health and Safety: As an employer, you must identify hazards in your workplace and take steps to eliminate or minimize them, develop a safety plan, tell your employees what you will do to ensure their safety and what you expect from them. Proper training is necessary for all employees, especially if there is a risk for potential injury associated with a job. Meet regularly with your staff and discuss health and safety issues, encourage them to share their ideas and thoughts on how to improve safety in the workplace. Regularly check all equipment and tools to ensure that they are well maintained and safe to use. Investigate accidents and keep records of all first aid treatment, inspections, incident investigations, and training activities.

CCD: What advice would like to give to the Management?

ASA: Leading by example; the Management should ensure that  all safety policies are adhered to and encouraging employees to do the same. If Management commits to safety, employee will follow suit. Workers won’t buy-in to safety if they don’t see policies and procedures being followed by their superiors. Safety is more than talking the talk; it’s walking the walk.

We work daily to improve our human effectiveness and strive to achieve happiness in our homes with our families, in our business and work, to achieve that we most arrange this basic key part of business. Safety shouldn’t be an after – thought; it’s just as important to a successful business as customer service, inventory control, and financial planning. A commitment to Health and Safety makes good business sense because it’s the one way to protect your greatest resource – your people.