EU24 Actions to Address Barriers to Accessing BC Hydro and Safely Using Electricity

BC Hydro offers a number of ways for customers to get access to information and to safety use electricity, some of which include:

• The Customer Care IVR provides upfront the options of English, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Punjabi for automated services within IVR. The options within the IVR are limited for all languages except English. The Trouble and Power Smart IVR only offer English.
• Customer Service Reps have the use of Cantalk which provides translating services for a multitude of different languages.
• Large print invoices for visual impairment.
• Hearing impaired customers are managed externally by Telus contacting the care centre.
• Braille billing was implemented in the first quarter of fiscal 2010. The customer will be registered for Your Account (by the Call Centre agent) so that their invoices are available in PDF form. The paper bill will be out sorted to the Revenue Cycle Operations (RCO) Support team for them to send the bill in PDF format electronically to Terra Reproductions to be converted to a Braille bill. Once the bill is converted the Braille bill and a PDF copy are sent back to ABS RCO and forwarded to the customer. Billing will put a contact on the account that the Braille bill has been issued and due to the delays in getting the Braille bill, along with the regular bill, to the customer, an LPC lock and Notice bypass will be placed in the account which will waive any LPC's (Late Payment Charges) and Dunning procedures.
• BC Hydro has enacted an alternative payment channel in partnership with Canada Post. This payment channel, ePost, provides customers the ability to view, pay and manage household bills online. BC Hydro is now one of the payees that are accessible through this service.
• BC Hydro is also making a concerted effort to drive the conservation message and is actively pursuing the benefits of paperless billing. Customers can now receive their bill via paper or paperless billing, and an optional electronic reminder can be sent via e-mail.