Irkutsk power sales company is preparing new ways to pay for electricity through express payment cards and e wallets, which should make the process faster and more convenient. For now most consumers still pay through banks, payment centers and the post office, while the company continues to develop its own service points where one can not only pay but also get advice and check meter readings. The article also explains how service quality is assessed and why introducing online payment will take time to debug the system.
Most consumers now prefer to pay for electricity at banks, special payment reception points, and at the post office. But new ways of paying for electricity are now being developed. Express payment cards and electronic wallets are supposed to make the process of depositing money as fast and convenient as possible for the consumer. True, before one can pay for electricity with a couple of clicks of a computer mouse, a certain amount of time must pass for the system to be debugged.“The majority of the population — about 60% — prefers to pay for electricity through a bank,” notes Sergey Babkin, Director of Irkutsk Energy Sales Company LLC. “This is very convenient, because money is accepted by practically all credit institutions operating in the Irkutsk Region.” Payment reception points are in second place in popularity — a third of the company’s customers use them. In third place are post offices, through which 10% of bills are paid.
For now, consumers do not use terminals very actively; about 1% of payments go through them. In addition, not every machine is suitable for carrying out such an operation. “We use only bank unicassas that have proven themselves as reliable partners,” said the director of Irkutsk Energy Sales Company. “We terminated our contract with some organizations because the money was transferred with delays of up to several days, which is a serious risk both for us and for the consumer. After all, we purchase electricity on the wholesale market and must settle for it in equal installments four times a month.”
Despite the fact that in other Russian regions energy companies have decided to abandon their own payment reception points, Irkutskenergo has decided to focus on developing this area. In 2008, two new points opened in the Irkutsk Region, and the same number will appear this year — in the Ust-Orda Okrug and the settlement of Novonukutsk in the Nukutsky District. “The reason is simple: at such a point, a consumer can not only pay a bill, but also receive all the necessary information, including changes in legislation, as well as reconcile meter readings,” Sergey Babkin emphasized. “Such points allow us to receive feedback from consumers. This fits into the company’s concept of communicating with clients in a targeted and fairly detailed manner.” For the convenience of consumers, the flows are divided into “settlement” and “information.”
Since 2007, the quality of service at payment reception points has been assessed according to several parameters — with the help of invited experts, focus groups, and surveys of the consumers themselves. Experts track the dynamics of indicators according to 26 criteria, and then assign an overall score — from 1 to 4. “Previously it was 2.2, and now it is already above 3,” Sergey Babkin noted. “There are points where it is close to the maximum.” There are also unconventional ways of assessing the quality of employees’ work at payment reception points. For example, a visit by a “mystery shopper,” whose goal is to provoke a situation unexpected for the employees and understand how stress-resistant they are and whether they can promptly solve the problem.
The energy company is actively mastering new ways of paying for its services, which will make the process of depositing money as simple and fast as possible. For example, through express payment cards and electronic wallets, into which the customer first transfers a certain amount of money. It will be debited with a single click of the computer mouse. True, these new payment options will not be available in the very near future. A certain amount of time will be needed to establish the receipt and transmission of information from the consumer to Irkutsk Energy Sales Company LLC and vice versa. “Therefore, first, via the Internet, the client will be able to see the meter readings and the amount of the bill issued to them,” Sergey Babkin noted. “After we make sure that the energy company’s data and the consumer’s data match, we can talk about introducing new forms of payment on the Internet.”