Few companies in the world face the problem that South Africa's utilities do: that of trying to force their customers to spend less money with them, instead of more.
In the wake of a power crisis that has shaken the economy, the utilities responsible for generating, transmitting and distributing electricity are desperately urging their commercial and residential customers to cut back the amount of power that they use by 10% or more.
There are fears that gas and water utilities will also run into problems servicing the demand for their commodities in the years to come. The mismatch between supply and demand has already forced Eskom, which generates 95% of South Africa's electricity, to propose a massive price hike for electricity this year.
Against this backdrop, the business case for implementating robust self-service solutions in the South Africa utilities sector is growing stronger by the day. Self-service addresses both customer requirements and corporate objectives by electronically enabling customer interactions that currently take place via the phone or paper.
Self-service solutions allow consumers to interact and transact with the companies they do business with when it is convenient for them using channels such as the Web, mobile, kiosks and interactive voice response (IVR).
These tools can be used to give customers 24/7/365 access to billing, services management and inquiries, and have substantial benefits for utilities and their clients.
For customers, self-service is a simple and convenient way of empowering consumers to manage their utility accounts and resource usage at any place and any time. Self-service can empower utilities customers to monitor their usage of services such as electricity in real-time so that they can control their spending and avoid possible penalties for exceeding their limits.
Customers can also check their accounts at the end of the month, and pay with a credit card or banking transfer with a few clicks.
They can order new services, keep informed about planned and unplanned outages, learn more about a utility's pricing structures, report outages, looking at historical billing and usage information online, initiate bill disputes and more, all without needing to call the contact centre and wait for 20 minutes for an operator to respond.
For utilities, self-service delivers a wealth of benefits, including better relationships with customers, cost-savings, and faster payments from customers.
The costs of servicing customers are spiralling at utilities as their client bases grow and the pressure on their infrastructure increases. The contact centres at Eskom as well as electricity distributors such as City Power have come under enormous strain because of frequent outages due to load-shedding and infrastructure failures.
A strong benefit of self-service solutions lies in the fact that they can help to deflect many calls from contact centres by giving customers fast access to the information they need through channels such as IVR, fixed-line or mobile Internet, or SMS messages.
The number of routine phone calls such as bill inquiries and service outage reports can also be reduced by giving customers online access to services and information.
Payment reconciliation can be integrated into the self-service portal, this preventing many "Did you receive my payment?" calls.
Self-service solutions can also streamline the payment process. Rather than waiting for a bill in the post, utilities can allow customers to view or receive their bills online, and then pay it using a variety of options.
Customers can set thresholds for debit orders and automatic payments online, or pay with a credit or debit card. Cost-savings on paper and postage are another advantage.
There are also broader social and environmental benefits from self-service.
By delivering 400,000 bills a month electronically rather than by post, a utility saves 350 tons of paper, 700 tons of trees and 5.7 million gallons of water, and also prevents 340 tons of solid waste and the emission of about 775 tons of greenhouse gasses on an annual basis.
South African utilities are losing money every day that they delay the introduction of robust self-service facilities for their clients. It is a concept that can deliver immediate cost and customer satisfaction benefits by addressing some of the most pressing operational issues utilities face today.
