UGU District has opened a 24-hour sms line aimed to attend to customers’ water and sanitation queries.
At standard network rates customers can sms the customer care centre on 44751 where they will receive an acknowledgement of receipt and a reference number within an hour.
“The sms line is another way of reducing the inconvenience of waiting in long call centre queues,” said Ugu spokesman Sipho Khuzwayo.
He added that the line has been created so that customers can report illegal water connections, broken meters, leaks and burst pipes and service interruptions such as water outages, poor water quality and low water pressure.
“We are exploring available communication platforms that will improve communication between the municipality and its customers,” he said.
When sending a service query, customers are urged to include their names, exact location of problem and a brief description of the problem to ensure the fault is attended to within the service standard time.
“A quality assurance official may contact customers to conduct a service quality assurance to measure the level of customer satisfaction and ensure quality output,” he concluded.
Users of this sms line will be entered into their community customer data base for regular updates on water supply and other services in their areas.