ALLENTOWN, Pa., Feb. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PPL Electric
Utilities' proactive outage alerts, introduced last year to better
inform customers and improve service, have been honored in a major
industry awards competition.
POWERGRID International magazine has chosen PPL's outage alerts
as its Customer Engagement Project of the Year. The utility
received the award Monday night (2/8) at the magazine's annual
DistribuTECH conference in Orlando,
Fla., the electric industry's largest transmission and
distribution conference in North
America. The awards are open to utilities from across
North America.
"Our proactive outage alerts have received a strong positive
response from customers, and we appreciate this industry
recognition as well," said Christopher
Cardenas, Customer Services vice president. "We continue to
look for ways to improve our service, keep customers informed, and
make doing business with PPL as convenient as possible."
Last April, the utility began proactively sending the alerts to
residential customers whenever they have a power outage, to keep
them up to date. The alerts tell customers the scope of their
outage, and provide estimated restoration times and repair updates
when available. Customers also receive an alert after the outage
ends.
Customer survey data indicates that nearly 8 in 10 customers are
satisfied with the outage alerts, and roughly half say the alerts
improved their opinion of PPL.
Customers can choose to receive the outage alerts via email,
text message, phone or a combination. They can also set "quiet
hours" when they do not want to receive alerts, and can opt out of
the program if desired. Alert preferences can be set and managed at
pplelectric.com/alerts.
In related efforts to better serve customers, PPL Electric
Utilities also revamped and improved its online outage map, as
another way to share information on repair progress and restoration
estimates.
While the company is working harder to share outage information
with customers, it's also significantly reducing the number of
outages. System improvements such as tree trimming, installing
smart grid technology, and upgrading poles and wires prevented
about 410,000 outages last year. The average customer is
experiencing 30 percent fewer outages than in 2007, and the utility
is aiming for a further 15 percent improvement in the coming
years.
PPL Electric Utilities provides electric delivery service to
more than 1.4 million homes and businesses in Pennsylvania and ranks among the best utility
companies in the country for customer service and reliability. With
2,300 employees, PPL Electric Utilities is a major employer in the
communities it serves. It is a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE:
PPL). For more information visit www.pplelectric.com.
Note to Editors: Visit our media website at www.pplnewsroom.com
for additional news and background about PPL Corporation.
Contact:
Paul Wirth, 610-774-5997
PPL Electric Utilities
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SOURCE PPL Electric Utilities