–to improve overall customer service

THE Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) yesterday announced the introduction, as of August, of a new monthly billing system for metered customers to minimise estimated billing and improve overall customer services.

The disclosure was made during a press conference at GWI Head Office at Vlissengen Road and Church Street.

According to Customer Services Manager Jeanette Thomas, the change from quarterly to monthly billing is meant to improve the overall efficiency of bill delivery, and provide customers with a more reliable billing schedule.

“We have listened to our customers’ recommendations for monthly billing,” Thomas said, “hence the new monthly schedule will simplify our bill delivery processes and align GWI with the other utilities. Our goal is to motivate our customers to make payments on time, and provide them with a monthly bill that is due with their other monthly expenses, hence making it easier for customers to remember their water service payments”.

GWI meter readers will also appear in person at the premises of metered customers, and GWI asks that they be given access to the water meters to make those readings on a monthly basis, Thomas added.

She advised metered customers not to encumber the place where the water meter is situated, since that would make it difficult for the meter readers to access and read the meters; and she said that once monthly bills are generated to customers, they have a 28-day period to make necessary payments.

Thomas told the press conference that bills would be delivered one week before payments are due, and non-receipt of a bill by a customer does not exempt that customer from paying up to avoid disconnection.

She disclosed that GWI has 70,000 metered customers, and prior to this new billing system, the company used to bill customers for every three months, and this caused customers not to make payments.

Thomas said their customer-friendly payment plan is still available to customers who are in arrears, and she urged those customers to visit the GWI office in their area to work out a payment plan.

She noted that more than 50% of GWI customers are in arrears, and she said that more than 10,000 have been disconnected, but GWI is appealing to those customers to clear their outstanding balances and be reconnected.

Thomas added that illegal re-connection affects GWI’s customer base because the service can be contaminated, which can affect others.

She said that GWI is adequately staffed with 48 meter readers; in addition, there are bill delivery personnel, as well.

She said that less than 5% of customers are guilty of illegal re-connection, and through the Corporate Services, letters have been issued to defaulters.

Meanwhile, Billing and Revenue Control Manager Julie Ragnauth said that bills for metered customers will run for three weeks every month, and GWI personnel will be on hand to make those deliveries to customers to ensure it is done in a timely manner.

She explained that bills would, on a monthly basis, be delivered from the 15th of every month in an exercise that would last until the first week of the next month.

Ragnauth also urged metered customers to utilise the payment agencies to avoid long lines at GWI offices countrywide. Those agencies are Bill Express, Mobile Money, SurePay, and the commercial banks.

Giving the financial perspective, Executive Director Jaigopaul Ram said the organisation has evaluated its current position in terms of revenue collection in this new initiative of monthly billing.

He noted that the entity is currently collecting the value of 70% of the service generated while its strategic plan set out in 2016 overall to earn 90%, but with this new initiative, he said, the company is likely to achieve the strategic plan target in 2014 of 75%.

Ram stated that with projected increase of revenues coming in, the company would be in a better position to improve its level of service and ultimately improve its infrastructure in providing a better quality of water to customers.

Ram told reporters that customers are in arrears to the tune of $1.4B, and the company has launched an aggressive campaign to collect outstanding payments.

Another goal of the new programme is to minimize instances of estimated bills. “Every effort is being made to avoid billing metered customers on an estimated charge,” the Customer Services Manager disclosed. “This occurs when our meter readers cannot gain access to customers’ premises, and an estimated amount is generated based on past consumption trends. To reduce this, monthly billing offers customers a more consistent routine in which meter readers would visit their homes and a bill would be generated within 30 days.

“We urge customers to ensure GWI meter readers are allowed access to their meters, since this is pivotal to minimizing estimated bills”, the GWI official said.

Meter readers who are unable to access meters would leave letters urging customers to make contact with the nearest GWI location so that their service consumption can be inputted to avoid estimated billing.

The overarching aim of the Monthly Billing Programme is to provide customers with more consistent and convenient bill delivery, on par with other major utilities.

Monthly billing for unmetered customers would be launched in 2015.

(By Michel Outridge)