ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 TAG: 9612170047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
By this time next year, customers of American Electric Power Co. in Roanoke and elsewhere in Virginia will be calling a toll-free number in northern West Virginia to report power outages, ask about their bills or sign up for service.
AEP announced Monday that it plans to open a customer-call center in Hurricane, W.Va., in late 1997. It will serve nearly 1 million AEP customers in Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Hurricane is located west of Charleston off Interstate 64.
Currently, employees in AEP local offices, including those in Roanoke, handle customer inquiries.
The company doesn't know yet how many workers in the Roanoke area will be affected by the opening of the call center, said Don Johnson, an AEP spokesman in Roanoke. Workers who now handle customer calls also do other work for AEP, he said.
AEP said the new call center will have a staff of 108 full-time and 24 part-time workers. It will employ both current and new workers, the utility said. The center will operate 24 hours a day, every day, and is expected to handle 3 million calls annually.
AEP said the center should give the company improved response time during power outages. It will feature automated call processing that allows customers to conduct business without talking with service representatives, if they desire, and the capacity to handle 10,000 calls an hour, the company said.
The center also will give the company an improved ability to collect the kind of information needed to improve efficiency and make "cost-effective decisions," AEP said.
The Hurricane center will be AEP's fourth such customer service facility.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB