Total 348 words used.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when businesses were hit the hardest, Meralco was receiving a deluge of operations-related inquiries from enterprise customers. With the power utility’s customer-centric approach, Meralco Corporate Partners Viber Community was launched to provide quick, relevant energy-related updates and industry developments that impact business operations.
Meralco Corporate Partners fields a team of 30 relationship managers (RM) handling over 2,500 commercial and industrial accounts, bringing the RM to business account ratio to 1:70. While the day-to-day account handling has been adequately managed, three events in 2020 heavily affected Meralco and business continuity:
1. Taal Volcano eruption – Over 400 business accounts lost power translating to 18 million kWh loss in energy sales.
2. Community lockdowns due to the pandemic – It was challenging to update customers on Meralco’s operations during the lockdowns, which would in turn impact their business operations.
3. High billing issues and relief efforts – Under government and customer scrutiny due to high billing, Meralco needed to respond to bill queries and communicate customer relief efforts such as installment payment arrangements and waiving of the Guaranteed Minimum Billing Demand charges. The business hotline received an unprecedented 72,692 calls - a 283% increase from 2019 total calls of only 19,024.
The project aims to address specific issues such as limited reach among enterprise customers, inundated manpower and hotlines, and the need for a channel for quick information dissemination.
With 455 members, the Viber Community has penetrated 18% of Meralco’s enterprise customer base specifically its operations personnel. As of February 2022, a total of 38,880 manhours was reduced. With the 1:70 ratio, it takes up 4 hours to attend to all customers. With 30 RMs, 120 hours would be needed to relay one communication material. Calls were reduced by 69%. From January to July 2021, only 5,820 enterprise customers called the business hotline. The same period in 2019 had 19,024 total calls. Results showed that Meralco was reaching the right audience with the most engaged posts reflecting topics that impact their business operations.
Nomination Title: Meralco Corporate Partners Viber Community: Engagement when connectivity is a must
