Lilongwe Water Board  launches 24-Hour customer call-centre

In a quest to serve its customers better, the Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has set-up a Customer Call Centre with simplified and innovative features, making it easy for customers to communicate with the Board and be assisted effectively.

Cutting the ribbon to open the call centre
The audience during the launch
The LWB call centre

LWB launched the Call Centre in a definitive cocktail event on Friday evening (7th December, 2018) which was patronized by customers, corporate stakeholders and government officials.

The Call-Centre, situated within Madzi House- Area 3 off Likuni Road- will be operating all year round, 24/7; and is in line with the Board’s Customer Service Charter which signifies its commitment to improve service delivery and meet customers’ expectations.

Speaking during the launch, Director of Water Supply and Sanitation under the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Emma Mbalame, described the facility as a record breaking milestone the Board has achieved under the reforms which Government of Malawi introduced in 2015.

“Lilongwe Water Board is one of the institutions that signed contracts with Government at the beginning of 2015/2016 financial year through the Chief Secretary, pledging to improve how it provides its services to the public,” said Mbalame.

She said it was pleasing to note that the Board for the past three years has taken major steps to improve in the way it conducts its day to day business.

“We have witnessed several innovations and projects being introduced and adopted by the Board which have significantly transformed Lilongwe Water Board into a customer-responsive and financially viable utility. We have seen the development of a Customer Service Charter to affirm the Board’s commitment to improve service delivery. The charter speaks volume of the Board’s commitment in satisfying customers’ expectations.”

Mbalame while applauding LWB on its innovations, was quick to point out that as the Ministry they were aware that the Board has for years been struggling to meet the increasing water demand in Lilongwe City, attributing the challenge to old supplying system and lack of additional water sources.

“As a Ministry we are aware of these challenges and we are doing all we can to ensure these problems have been addressed and that people in Lilongwe City do have uninterrupted water supply services 24/7 all year round. This is why we approved several projects the Board came up with to improve both supply and distribution system.”

LWB Board Member, Bishop Dr. Charles Tsukuluza said it was the Board’s expectations that the Call-Centre will define how customers perceive the Board, how customers are assisted and how the Board considers its customers.

“The Call-Centre is another innovation that will shape the course of how utilities should deal with their customers. It has professional agents to ensure customers are properly assisted. Customers can access the Call-Centre by calling 253 for free and will be assisted accordingly,” said Bishop Tsukuluza.

In his remarks, LWB Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Alfonso Chikuni said the Call-Centre is the Board’s value proposition set up as one way of improving its service delivery.

“It adds value in serving our customers radiating from our five-year Strategic Plan, focusing on customer loyalty pillar.  The Call-Centre has been established with primary focus of addressing the customer relations constraints utilities grapple with.  We want to be the first Malawian utility to capture the power of data to turbo-charge efficiency,” said Chikuni.

Chikuni said LWB will continue to develop the social-economic framework by exploring emerging opportunities to achieve its mandate to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

“The Call-Centre affirms that culture which is now transforming the institution into a high performing water utility organization. We pride ourselves for being innovative and proactive by adopting and implementing commercially viable facilities such as E-Madzi, Pre-paid Water Metering System, ERP, SCADA and On-site Billing, GIS, among others, to ensure we are up-to-date with modern trends of technological development.

“Let me reiterate the Board’s commitment to continue adopting new and emerging strategic issues such as robust customer relations, water crises management, climate change adaptation, innovative revenue management and business ideas in order to achieve its mission of providing adequate water supply services in a sustainable, efficient and customer responsive manner”.”

The LWB state-of-art Call-Centre is equipped with a feedback mechanism and customer complaints monitoring system which enable LWB assess its performance and effectively respond to customer complaints within specified standards. Customers can access the Call-Centre by calling 253 for free.

Patrons to the launch on Friday were treated to performance by a violinist, Lucent Shaba who wowed the guests with his scintillating skill.

 

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SILENT MAJORITY
SILENT MAJORITY
5 years ago

Please lauch a dam. Koma dzikoli…..shaaaaaaa.

Kalulu
Kalulu
5 years ago

Ndiye munthu akanena kuti mwandidulira madzi inu mudzibwera kudzalumikiza?Koma ine anthu oyenda chokhwekhweleza machende ngati khoswewa, bolanso khoswe machende ake amawanyamula.

Kalulu Wadwala
Kalulu Wadwala
5 years ago

Madzi ake ali kuti? Komatu ma innovations a ku Malawi timapanga ngati sukulu yoperewera. Solve the water supply issue then innovations. Have you paid the people anamwa sewage?

Albert
Albert
5 years ago

Seriously? Launching a call centre with ribbon cutting and then cocktails? The water board should be ambarrased for not having a call centre previously. Now we wonder that Malawi is the poorest country in the world, this is one of the evidences.

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