Discoms like RInfra, Tata Power plug into social media to redress consumer grievances

KOLKATA: Want to sort out your electricity problems real fast? Don’t register your complaint on phone; do it on Facebook (FB)or Twitter, and your issue will be addressed on a real-time basis.

Consumers say, and power distribution company executives agree, that complaints made on the social media are taken care of faster than those registered on phone. That is because discoms are increasingly concerned about their image on digital platforms.

“There is a dedicated social media team that takes cares of consumer grievances or responds to their queries on a real-time basis during office hours,” a senior official at Reliance Infrastructure, or RInfra, one of the largest private power distribution companies in the country, said. “In contrast, when someone uses the phone to call up the consumer complaints cell, the problem is routed to the concerned department and obviously it takes longer than the social media route,” he added.

Even after the regular working hours, a team handles social media complaints till 12 in the night and, if required, forwards them to the technical team, the person said.

Lalit Jalan, CEO at Rinfra, said the company uses social media for sharing thoughts and issues on real-time basis with consumers. “Being a consumer centric company, we are now using various platforms of social media-…Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, for coming closer to our stakeholders,” he said. “We have chosen this medium not only to resolve grievances of our stakeholders; but also to keep them updated on various developments across the sector and educate them on the critical issues.”
Tata Power, another leading private discom, too takes care of customer queries through our FB page and the Twitter account, an official said. “However, power business is a little different and the customer relation through such platform needs to be handled differently,” the person added.

Both RInfra and Tata Power distribute electricity in Mumbai and Delhi.

An analyst said social media has become one of the most powerful medium of communication for discoms to reach and exchange of thoughts with consumers, redress their grievances and educate them on technology.

RInfra claims to have the largest social media traffic among Mumbai discoms. Reliance Energy, which distributes power to about 2.8 million households in Mumbai suburbs, has about 88,000 Facebook likes and 1,569 Twitter followers.

Tata Power, which has a customer base of about 450,000 in Mumbai, has some 5,600 Facebook likes and some 100 Twitter followers, while CESC, with about 2.4 million consumers in Kolkata, has 354 Twitter followers.