ICCEES 2010:
Bushra Jahfar:
Subject: Learning by Listening
Abstract:
Focus Groups Discussions (FDGs) are an effective mechanism for securing customer feedback and identifying ways for improving services. The Energy Policy (EP) Project has the demonstrated experience of having conducted a series of 15 FDGs at the request of Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), as a support activity for our LESCO Cost of Service Study (CoSS) effort. The process was conducted during May-June 2009, and a total of 180 participants, ranging from domestic, agricultural, commercial and industrial customer categories, were reached in the process. This was the first time any public sector utility initiated such an active engagement with its customers and the responsiveness was appreciated by the participants. The process was even more unique from a gender perspective for out of the 15 FDGs; three sessions were exclusively conducted with female customers from the domestic category. To increase power utilities' responsiveness to customer perceptions, especially from a gender perspective, such forums of engagement could be initiated and made part of an institutional learning mechanism. The information collected through these mechanisms of customer engagement also could suggest operational changes with the utilities, which could inform DISCOs’ operational performance (e.g., reducing non-technical losses and improving rates of collection).