Despite being a soft-spoken guy, Engr. Jayson Labayan deals with both the Engineering and Customer Service side of the business in a power utility company.
Working as a Customer Service Engineer in Davao Light and Power Company, Inc. (Davao Light), an AboitizPower subsidiary, Jayson ensures that customers comply with the requirements needed to apply for a new electric service connection. He inspects the electrical plan, the construction of the service entrance, and all the wiring installation to make sure that the setup and materials for a household applying for an electric service connection are up to standard.
After a customer submits their application in one of Davao Light’s customer service centers, they will be endorsed to the Customer Retail Services Department (CRSD) where Jayson belongs.
“Once a customer is endorsed to our department, we directly coordinate with them by creating a group chat on Facebook,” Jayson explains that since they are the ones with the technical know-how, they directly communicate with the customers to avoid confusion.
On average, their section receives at least 12 applications per day. To date, each customer service engineer in their department has handled 144 work orders since January 2023.
“At first, I had no idea what my position entails. Since I graduated from an engineering course, I was not trained on how to directly engage with customers, and I considered it a challenge at first,” Jayson shared that since he graduated in Electrical Engineering, he has to learn the customer service side of the business, on the job. During his one-year stint as a customer service engineer, Jayson learned to effectively communicate all the requirements to the customer in the first few months of his employment.
“There are times when a customer needs us to explain technical stuff in a simple way so we had to laymanise everything from watts to billing,” Jayson recalled a recent encounter he had with a customer who wanted to understand the nitty-gritty details of their application process. “It feels nice when a customer thanks us for guiding them through the application process because our good service also reflects that of the company,” Jayson shared.
Aside from the curious customers, Jayson shared that he had his fair share of irate customers, “that means that they want their application to be approved immediately or their concerns were not satisfactorily met and resolved.” Jayson shared that some customers who do not hire accredited electricians may sometimes have difficulty complying with all the requirements set by Davao Light.
According to Jayson, the advantage of hiring a Davao Light accredited electrician is that they already know the standards of the utility company. Jayson also enumerated that accredited electricians already know the process of securing permits, applications, and forms for the electric service application.
Despite differences in setup and materials, Davao Light’s requirements still follow the standards of the Philippine Electrical Code and Philippine Distribution Code. Jayson also clarifies that these accredited electricians are not directly under Davao Light, but they do have direct contact with these organizations.
“Other customers hire electricians they already know. Sometimes, these electricians follow other power utility’s standards regarding setup and materials. However, these are not usually appropriate for Davao Light’s distribution system,” Labayan said.
Jayson also shared that some customers resort to bribery when there is a significant delay in their application. “I was once offered Php 10,000 for their application to be approved. Some customers or electricians offer even higher sums of money! Good thing I was briefed beforehand that we should not accept any money from customers, and our services should remain free as it is part of our line of work,” Jayson was recognized for refusing these bribes in an employee feature in the company. He added that they cannot stop customers from offering bribes, but they were instructed to refuse them during their training.
Jayson also directly handles applications and meetings with local government units and developers of high-rise condominiums, which empowers him to take an active role in the progress of Davao City. “I can see how Davao Light empowers the city when there are newly built high-rise condominiums, coastal roads, and households that are energized through us.”
