The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company has introduced an electronic billing platform, which enables customers to receive electricity bills promptly and conveniently, via channels such as Short Message Service, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, email, IE Bill portal and IE mobile application.
The e-billing initiative is in continuation of the Disco’s desire to leverage innovation and technology to improve the customer experience.
The company disclosed this in Lagos last Wednesday, where it explained that the initiative was designed to deliver electronic bills directly to the customer, thereby eradicating challenges such as misplaced bills or delayed delivery and other issues associated with the distribution of had copy bills.
Announcing the service, IE explained that soon e-bills would be the dominant mode of bill delivery considering its numerous advantages as well as the company’s mass metering of customers across its network.
The IE Head of Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue, said, “What we have done with e-billing is to create different platforms through which post-paid customers can easily access their bills.
“As a forward-thinking organisation, we understand that a critical element of the product development is customer convenience and ease to access. This is what we intend to achieve by providing post-paid customers with easier options of receiving monthly bills via SMS, e-mail, USSD, IE Bill Portal and IE mobile app.”
According to Ofulue, the company believes that its customers appreciate innovative services that offer convenience, eliminate hitches and fit their lifestyle.
“Therefore, this initiative was driven largely with interest of customers at heart,” he said.
He further pointed out that from an environmental perspective, e-billing would help IE take a step towards greater environmental sustainability, and for customers, e-bills will help reduce unwanted clutter and strenuous filings.
The e-bills will also enable customers to access historical data of their bills including consumption patterns.
The e-billing service is free. The SMS is delivered to the registered phone numbers of customers while PDF bills are delivered to e-mails submitted by customers. PDF can also be downloaded via the website. The mobile app is currently available on Android and will soon be available on other operating systems. There is also a billing portal, which customers can access to download their bills on a monthly basis.
Customers can update their contact details by visiting the company’s website, the Customer Care Unit or the nearest IE service centre. For customers who do not have contact details on IE’s website, account managers will ensure all bills delivered to valid contacts provided by such customers.
IE’s e-billing initiative is the first in the industry and complies with regulatory requirements.
