The City of Danville has launched a new utility customer web portal with an interactive map that provides real-time information about power outages. The portal – danvilleutilities.com – allows customers to not only search for or report power outages online, but also to track their utility consumption, view their bills and make payments.
The new portal is one of two utilities upgrades now in place to improve customer experience. The other upgrade is the use of a hosted interactive voice response (IVR) service that will eliminate busy signals when customers report power outages by telephone.
“When we started working on this portal, we knew that we wanted to add robust features to aid our customers,” Utilities Director Jason Grey said Monday. “We believe this portal meets that goal. We encourage customers to visit the new site, sign up, bookmark and begin navigating through the portal.”
The portal’s landing page provides windows for web access registration and account login. It also includes important information such as emergency contact numbers and administrative office hours of operation and contact information.
Once registered and logged in, customers can view and pay bills online, review transaction and payment history, analyze and download electricity, water and gas usage, and report power outages.
Information about power outages is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without the need for customers to log into their accounts.
“The power outage map is mobile-friendly and allows customers to zoom in to see power outages by street or neighborhood,” Grey said. “Outages also are searchable by street. This map provides a quick and easy way for customers to get information while we’re working to restore power.”
MTI of Atlanta is providing the hosted IVR service.
“Before switching to this service, we had a limited number of lines, so customers would encounter busy signals,” Grey said. “Hosted companies have thousands of ports. This service also will free up our dispatchers to focus on outages.”
Grey said the IVR service is bilingual. All calls are recorded and customers have the option of being called back by the system.
Danville Utilities provides natural gas, water, wastewater and telecommunications services in Danville and distributes electricity to approximately 42,000 customer locations in a 500-square-mile service territory covering Danville, the southern third of Pittsylvania County, and small portions of Henry and Halifax counties.
