were the second largest sponsor after the camera-
owners, Ruapehu District Council.
In Te Kuiti, Bennydale and Waitomo we were
instrumental in the preparation for the Rugby
World Cup by assisting community groups “hang
up” their players, signs and flags on power poles
across the region.
The aim of the customer engagement programme
was to travel out to, and be part of, our local
communities. We have engaged a Relationship
and Communications Manager who is tasked with
meeting with customers out in our communities
and finding out what service or satisfaction issues
are of concern to our customers. There have been
a total of eight community meetings since August
2011, seven customer focus groups (including the
pricing consultation meetings) and a large number
of one on one meetings with customers in their
homes or businesses. This information has been fed
back into TLC and a number of initiatives are now
underway to address issues raised by our customers.
One of the steps TLC has taken is to ensure that
there is a customer advocate on every team that
designs or runs a project that has an impact on our
customers. This staff member is there to ensure
that the customer perspective is maintained and
that the appropriate customer communication
is delivered. We have also restructured the
staffing and extended the opening hours of the
Taumarunui office to ensure that we can respond
effectively to customer needs. Our staff member
in Taumarunui is very active in visiting customers
in the town and has also spent considerable time
in Turangi meeting with customers.
The general message that has been communicated
both at community meetings and in written
material is the “Why” of “why do we charge the
way we do?” We have briefed the EGCC on this
so that it can assist our customers to understand
our charging philosophy and we have undertaken
regular company wide workshops to ensure
our staff are able to explain our philosophy and
charges to our customers.
The two questions most asked by our customers are:
Why does TLC bill direct? Why does TLC charge vacant
installations?
The simple answer is this: we are
fighting to make sure that ALL customers pay their
fair share. It comes down to a simple mathematical
equation - we have a set amount of revenue to
collect from our region (which is fixed by regulation)
and if the absentee landlords, holiday homes and
seasonal businesses do not pay their share then
normal residents and families will pay more.
If revenue was not collected from vacant
installations and holiday homes then this would
necessitate a large increase on the balance of
our customers, with a disproportionately greater
increase in Ruapehu/Turangi where the bulk of our
holiday homes and seasonal establishments are.
That is why TLC does what it does – we don’t believe
that low income customers, permanent residents or
families should subsidise owners of rental properties,
holiday homes or seasonal businesses.
In February 2012 we ran our six monthly survey
to measure customer perception of TLC overall
as well as their perception about Smart Meters. A
summary of the results is detailed below:
The overall perception of TLC has improved 9%
•
since July 2011. What is particularly pleasing is
the increase by more than 20% of the ratings
of “quality service” and “options to control lines
charges”.
Satisfaction levels were generally positive with
•
over 75% satisfaction recorded for “power
supply reliability”, “fault service response” and
“after hours response”. While we are happy with
these three results, we will continue to work to
increase the levels in the other areas.
In the Smart Meter perception section, 59% of
•
our customers feel that having the ability to
move power usage through using a Smart Meter
is a good idea; 16% thought it was a bad idea,
while 25% were unsure. We will ensure before
any Smart Meter rollout that we actively engage
with our communities to discuss any questions
or concerns they may have.
New KPIs of “how fair” our customers perceive
our pricing to be, and whether customers consider
that TLC values its customers will be introduced to
measure changes in customer perception. A base
line is to be identified by survey by 30 June 2012.
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