Mayor Nickels, Councilmember Wills welcome improvements at City Light
Utility reports progress in customer service, billing issues
October 3, 2002- Mayor Greg Nickels and Councilmember Heidi Wills today welcomed
improvements to Seattle City Light's customer billing practices, which are detailed
in a newly released report.
"Six months ago, when questions were raised about billings, I directed the utility to
make things right," said Mayor Greg Nickels. "I'm pleased see to a variety of
improvements and a road map for even more. This should strengthen confidence in City
Light's billing system and help us maintain a high level of customer service."
The utility's report to Mayor Nickels will be made public today at the City Council's
Energy and Environmental Policy Committee, chaired by council member Heidi Wills.
"The Council and I have emphasized the need for improvement in City Light's customer
service operations," said Councilmember Wills. "This report outlines real measurable
results and I am pleased that complaints are down, some backlogs are eliminated and a
new training curriculum is in place to emphasize courtesy and customer service - all
steps in the right direction."
City Light's initial response to the Mayor's directive included:
- Hiring IBM to audit the computer billing system to confirm that it performed the
calculation of bills properly;
- Adding staff to provide a more thorough manual check of bills and exceptions;
- Suspending all credit and collection actions to ensure that customers working with
the utility or in active dispute were not disconnected;
- Increasing the auditing of data entered into the computer system.
The issue arose last April when customers began calling City Light's attention to a
series of erroneous bills. In response, the mayor directed City Light to make system
improvements and quickly resolve customers' billing disputes.
The report identifies improvements, including:
- Streamlined business processes.
- Reduced service and billing backlogs.
- Added quality assurance routines.
- Purchased radio meters for hard-to-access locations.
- Planned software upgrade to further improve the billing system.
- Increased customer-service training for employees.
- Improved communications with customers and public.
"This is a good start," Mayor Nickels said of the report. "No system that issues 2.5
million bills a year can ever be error-free, but the utility has begun dealing
effectively with some very complex business and technical issues."
"We think we've come a long way, but we know that the heating season is just around
the corner, and our system will be tested again," said Joan Walters, deputy
superintendent for customer services at City Light. "Our goal is customers who are
satisfied with our service and confident that they have received accurate bills."
To see the latest report, please visit,
http://www.cityofseattle.net/mayor/issues.htm
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