OREANDA-NEWS. On September 28, 2007 Vadim Fyodorov, Deputy General Director of  “IDGC”, PLC, responsible for electric power services, addressed a gathering at “Firsthand”, the All-Russian Club of Regional Journalists, reported the press-centre of “IDGC”.

Vadim Fyodorov informed the regional journalists on the current stage of implementing the System of Complex Client Services in the “IDGC of the Center”, PLC. Special attention was paid to the introduction of the Client Service Standard, approved and put into force by the Resolution of the RAO “UES of Russia”, PLC Management Board of September 17, 2007.

“The Standard determines the ethical norms for the personnel of the power companies; it contains a code of norms and requirements for liaising with clients of both quantitative and qualitative nature”, noted Vadim Fyodorov.

The Standard clearly defines the key parameters of power companies liaising with clients: the unified requirements to the quality of services offered, meeting fixed deadlines in all the liaising procedures, an individual approach to clients, including the disabled, veterans and the socially deprived, minimizing the client’s time, spent on receiving a service, quick responses to complaints and removing deficiencies customer care.

For instance, in processing telephone calls through an operator while telephone from a client the waiting time shall not exceed 40 seconds. In the event of addressing a client via e-mail registration, classifying and passing the information onto a specialist shall take no more than 1 day.

The Standard also lists all the forms and channels of offering direct and indirect services. It is important to note that the introduction of the mentioned forms is presently being actively implemented in the “IDGC of the Center”, PLC: client service centers have been established almost in all the regions of IDGC-1 operation area, the introduction of channels for offering indirect services is also under way.

“In the process of drawing up the standard we made inquires about similar practices in the developed countries. Direct services are not popular there, as people are used to communicating with power companies by phone, a e-mail and the Internet”, - says Vadim Fyodorov. – “In Russia the indirect way of offering services to clients in different spheres, including power engineering, becomes more and more popular, as well. I think, that in several years when telephonization and IT-technologies reach every regional electric grid company,  indirect services will be more popular, than today. However, even now we have good results with telephone liaising. It is a convenient and useful form for managing “burning”, urgent problems and for giving consultations and explanations, as well.

It is important to note that the Client Service Standard is a universal document, which can be referred to by the grid and sales power companies, as well as by the organizations, providing heat to the consumers.