Basseterre, St. Kitts, (July 17th 2020)—The St. Kitts Electricity Company Ltd, unveiled a new automated customer support portal—Interactive Voice Response System, IVR—at a launch event on Thursday 9th July. The new customer service support portal provides an additional avenue for customers to engage with the company by allowing customers to receive real time updates about outages and restoration times, inquire about bill balances, pay bills, report faults and update contact details over the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Utilities, Honourable Shawn Richards, SKELEC’s IVR System was introduced to deal with the challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“With the imposition of curfews and the restrictions on movement, it became increasingly difficult for our customers to conduct business with us,” Minister Richards said. “We are aware that some customers did not receive physical copies of their bills, made inquiries through our social media platforms about their bill balances, were reluctant to come into our main office to make bill payments as a result of physical and social distancing, and were not able to sign up for our online billing platform E-biz— SKELEC is proud to offer its solution to these challenges.”
SKELEC’s IVR System is the first of its kind in St. Kitts Nevis and one of few throughout the Caribbean region. The addition of IVR technology, valued at $83,000 US, adds a new dimension to SKELEC’s growing list of customer service portals making it easier and more accessible for customers to interact with the Company. The automated service is a smart technology which caters to all customers. The IVR system can respond to voice commands and touch tone keypad selections and can also be accessed in Spanish. Payments made using the IVR System occur real time as such the account is updated automatically.
In addition to the company’s alternative bill payment options including its E-biz Platform (ebiz.skelec.kn), as well as the online banking portals at St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank, FirstCaribbean Bank and Republic Bank, IVR provides an added opportunity for customers to make bill payments and overall interact with the company.
This on-demand automated customer service support system is revolutionary as customers have never been able to access customer support services over the phone 24/7. In addition to E-biz: the company’s online bill platform, the company can now boast of its own additional bill pay platform as a part of its more ways to pay campaign.
SKELEC would like to recognize the St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank and Milsoft Utility Solutions and Daffron and Associates as partners for SKELEC’s Interactive Voice Response System.
