Social media engagement: taking cue from KESC

Being one of the two major electric utility suppliers in Pakistan, KESC has had its share of irate customer throwing verbal gumballs at them every time a major power shutdown strikes the city. Fast forward to Saturday (August 4) and cue another one of those power outages that leave the masses screaming from frustration in the swarming 30 degree Karachi heat at 1 am in the morning. So what does a power supply company that caters to the needs of nearly 2.2 million customers do differently this time around to quell the upsurge in consumer backlash? It reaches out to them through twitter of course. KESCs unprecedented engagement with its customers during the course of the power outage -which took 24 hours to be set back in order in some areas-, came as a pleasant surprise to a large number of complainants who have over the course of the years become used to power companies setting their phones off the hook once something of this sort happens. Manned by a single customer relations employee, the firms official twitter account kept consumers informed throughout the ordeal, replying to complaints, informing people about the expected times that power would be restored to their area and maintaining a steady stream of updates about the maintenance work. Kept out of context of the fact that the majority of KESCs customers do not have access to the Smartphones that would have been necessary to keep up to date with the firms twitter stream, the effort still merits applause. And it was not only those affected by Saturdays breakdown who doled out praise for the way that the local power supply company made the use of the social medium to reach out to the irritated customers and engaged them in interactive communication. Sherry Rehman, a leading political commentator and Pakistans ambassador to the US commented on KESCs efforts today, tweeting out praise for the "communication surge" that came as a result of the firms initiative. Another tweet, from across the pond came from a Delhi based photographer going by the twitter handle @rikang, who tweeted "Karachi has a power break down and their utility company @KESC_Ltd tweets steady stream of updates. Any company in India does it?" Over the last few years, social media has become more than merely a medium for people to share thoughts and ideas and for businesses it has become somewhat of a game changer. Leading organisations from across the world- especially in the business-to-consumer industries are realising the importance of tapping into the usage of social media as a means to consumer engagement in terms of the solid competitive edge that it can provide. While smaller enterprises in Pakistan have been fast picking up on the rising global trend and engaging with their potential and existing customers through various social mediums -especially Facebook- one of our service giants making an effort to keep the customers in loop only raises the bar for the rest. And while KESC still has a way to go to effectively translate any such interactions into long-term business growth; this initiative can only lead to the firm gaining valuable consumer insight and cementing positive customer relations. So as they say in the twitter realm, KESC, should definitely keep them tweets rolling.