Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it; but it’s not the issue. Back in 1995, Dave Winer, a software developer, wrote a blog post entitled “We Make Shitty Software.” I’m repurposing that post because is reminds me of Transco and the Mindanao outage this weekend and of electric utilities in general.
An electric utility is a process; it’s never finished; it’s always evolving. Where ever you are located, and most especially throughout the Philippines, your utility sucks; but it’s more or less getting electricity to you. Next year maybe they’ll do better; but it’ll still suck. It’s the nature of utilities. The only utility that is perfect is the one you’re dreaming about. Real utilities don’t deliver uninterrupted power 24×7x365. They mess up your bill. They don’t listen well. They are hard to deal with.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a privately owned utility, an electric cooperative, or a state-owned utility. Here’s how the dynamic should work whether we have a competitive market place or not.
Utilities: When talking with an unhappy customer, first validate their belief that you’ve let them down. Agree that your company isn’t perfect. You won’t get an argument there! Move on, find a workaround, a way to get customer’s problem addressed. And promise to take a look at this problem and, if possible, fix it in the next round of corporate strategy planning and budgeting.
Customers: Observe your utility; look for the process, see if they responded to your needs from last year. Which way are they moving?