Kenya Power has embraced WhatsApp to engage its large power customers in a bid to enhance communication and service delivery.
The Company took up the technology last year following an engagement meeting with members of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), who also fall under its large power customer category.
Customers are divided into WhatsApp groups that provide a link between them and Kenya Power regional offices across the country.
The WhatsApp groups currently cover manufacturers in Mombasa, Eldoret/Uasin Gishu, Kisumu, Central Kenya and Athi River/Machakos chapters of KAM with plans to extend to other areas underway.
“Kenya Power is continuously seeking innovative ways of improving service delivery to customers. Among them is creating partnerships with industry groups in order to reach out to their members who are also our customers,” said Kenya Power’s Managing Director & CEO Dr Ben Chumo.
He added that “the WhatsApp groups provide a convenient engagement platform with large power customers and create a forum for them to put across issues concerning power supply thereby enabling quick response from the Company”.
Dr Chumo said that Kenya Power will continue to embrace new technology and ride on it to improve service delivery in order to adequately cater for the growing number of customers.
Large Power customers who are mainly industries account for about 60 per cent of Kenya Power’s revenue generated from sale of electricity.
Kenya Power has also been installing outdoor meters for large power customers in a bid to deepen use of technology to enhance efficiency in service delivery.
The outdoor metering project involves installation of smart meters atop a pole to ease access by Kenya Power staff and reduce disturbance to customers during reading and inspection of meters.
Kenya Power was named the World’s most “socially devoted” industrial company after answering more than 15,000 questions posed by its consumers on Facebook last year, according to a recent global study conducted by Social Bakers, an international social marketing and analytics firm.
A survey carried out by Ipsos in March ranked Kenya Power as the ninth most influential brand in a list of top 10 brands in Kenya.