For some days now, you may have noticed the BEL advertisements on the news to promote their new BEL 24 7 mobile App. It's a tool that the electricity company built to provide customers with easy access to essential services.
Rather than have customers waiting in long lines or on the phone, they can connect their account to the app. That then gives them access to real-time tracking of their electricity bill and estimated power consumption, and they can even report faults and unplanned outages.
Today, we got a chance to speak to BEL representatives about the app and the auditing that customers now have access to. Here's more on that topic from BEL's Supervisor of Customer Relations:
Melissa Forman, Supervisor of Customer Relations, BEL
"One of the new features the mobile app offers is to actually allow customers to calculate their bills using the smart calculator. We have three different calculators on the app. Using the smart calculator can help them recognize on a specific date that they request to punch in what their reading has on it. The app allows us to be able to recognize the account and the last reading that we did, enter the meter reading at their location and actually calculate the bill. What this does is that it helps customers to manage their account to be able to see on that given day way before a bill is calculated, what their consumption looks like and what that bill will look like from the last reading that we have done. This will allow customer to take the necessary step to either conserve power or take additional steps to see where it is that they can reduce the amount of usage that they may have to do in an effort to kind of control or identify where it is that they can balance off and manage their accounts or their payments. The BEL 24-7 app also has where customers are able to submit in reports, whether this be a tree cut that needs to be attended to or if it is a street light that is not working, or even if there is a power outage that is affecting their area. In addition to reporting it, they can be notified as well if there is a planned outage. We make sure that the app can notified customers similar to different applications where you get that prompt notification. It will alert them of the area that will be affect and as well as the time period that it will be. Again, the customers have the opportunity as well, if there is an outage that is affecting their area, they can use the mobile act to submit their request so that we can recognize and pinpoint with the map that is included where exactly that outage is being affected. The BEL 24-7 app allows customers to add multiple accounts, up to 80 accounts even. The opportunity here is that we understand that everyone might not be tech savvy so it allows customers the opportunity to manage their family members account, for example if I want to add my mother's account to the app I can do so and even make payments on her behalf through he mobile app. The adding of the accounts is very straightforward. All the information that is needed is the account number and the customer number. It allows you to provide a nickname so that you can differentiate between different accounts. Once that is added, the app user will be able to go in and select the account that they would like to view and be able to open a bill, download it and if necessary share the bill through different platforms; because we do recognize that there are other establishments that may request a bill copy. So, this is where an advantage is that we've given to the customers as well. For the payment option, it is simply to open the bill and at the bottom of it will show where it is that you can process the payment and thereafter it will allow you to prompt to identify the different online banking institution for a very straightforward payment being processed through the mobile app itself."
The company reps tell us that over 27 thousand customers have downloaded the app. It is available to download on the app stores for iOs and android.
