Bescom goes all out to change its image

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) is planning to change its image by reaching out to its customers. Its recent move to inform people in advance about scheduled power cuts through short message service is part of this attempt.

“We had requested our consumers in Bangalore district to stick their mobile phone numbers on the meter reading boards and instructed readers to collect the phone numbers, but the response is low,” said Bescom managing director, P Manivannan.

“Hence, we are going for an image-building exercise to have a better relationship with customers. We will seek the help of our franchisees to help us disseminate information on the scheme,” he added.

While some divisions, he said, had responded well to the offer and collection of the specific data had been possible, most areas were not even aware of the SMS facility.

As part of an awareness drive, Bescom will display boards in coffee houses listing contact numbers of engineers of each respective subdivision along with information on the SMS alerts on power cuts.

The process of collecting mobile phone numbers of consumers across the city would not take more than a month and the data base will be created thereafter.

“We have not yet decided which sub-station we will set as pilot for this scheme to roll out. But the decision will come soon after the image-building campaign makes some headway,” he said.
Bescom is also looking to outsource power distribution through franchises. Private companies will be allotted power to distribute in a certain area without interruptions. Recently, Manivannan gave a talk on how franchising will provide quality service to consumers once it takes off.

However, under this system, consumers may have to pay more for uninterrupted power supply.