Muscat, Oman, , 1 April 2015: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has won the Outstanding Performance by Customer Service Departments in GCC award at the first forum for power and water authorities in GCC countries that was held in Oman under the theme, 'Future Visions on Changing Customer Service Systems'. The award marks a new achievement by DEWA in delivering the highest and excellent standards of customer services.
Abdullah Al Hajri, Executive Vice President of Customer Services received the award on behalf of HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
The award aims to highlight successful practices in business management and performance. It motivates various entities to apply the principles of quality to ensure customer satisfaction and enhance the quality and excellence of the services provided. The award also strengthens the spirit of positive competition between Customer Service departments of various entities in the in GCC countries to enhance their competitiveness at the local, regional and global levels.

We are proud to receive this prestigious award, which also reflects our efforts to support the Happiness Index launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, which aims to establish Dubai as the first city in the world that measures the happiness of its residents, visitors and tourists and evaluating it interactively. In line with this initiative, we have adopted new strategic objectives as part of our 2014 2018 strategy roadmap. Accordingly, we provide smart devices to measure the happiness and satisfaction of the public with our services. We achieved over 98% customer happiness, said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.

At DEWA, we are committed to the implementation of the strategic plan to drive all-round institutional quality management. This includes software application development services as well as an Open Door Policy, which allows customers to communicate with the management directly. We make sure to address all customer complaints within 3 working days although that the Dubai Government index is allowing 7 working days. We also prepare customer satisfaction reports, through careful evaluation to highlight our results, added Al Tayer. DEWA adopts global methodology of benchmarking to determine levels of satisfaction and compare the results with the best services by global organisations. DEWA also organises regular meetings with experts and business development to exchange experiences and to highlight the latest software and techniques used to promote quality within various business sectors in line with our vision to be a sustainable innovative world-class utility, concluded Al Tayer.

DEWAs System Performance Monitor, available on smart devices, enables DEWAs customer services to highlight the performance indicators results to the MD & CEO of DEWA. The customer service sector benefits from the SAP system to issue daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly reports to identify opportunities for improvement, feedback, suggestions and complaints. This in turn helps in providing services according to the highest international standards of quality, said Abdullah Al Hajri, Executive Vice President of Customer Services. DEWA applies advanced set of leading practices and programmes that has enabled its development we well as in developing the skills and experience of its staff and achieving total quality in all sectors including customer services sector.

DEWA adopts the Creative Lab experience as a standard practice in line with its commitment to involve all staff-members in policy decisions and to identify the latest ideas and suggestions. The MyDEWAIdea initiative sets a new standard in corporate excellence and contributes significantly to achieving customer happiness. It serves as a repository of ideas from which to assess and apply creative ones. Our Do your Idea programme applied across the customer services department aims to encourage staff and gather their ideas through brainstorming sessions to develop new initiatives and develop action plans to the needs of the customers, added Al Hajri.

DEWA recognises the needs of current and future customers through survey, complaints, suggestions and customer experience study. We apply innovative practices to strengthen relationships with customers and to communicate with them through various tools as well as through community initiatives covering all segments of the society such as the Ashir initiative launched by DEWA last year for speech- and hearing-impaired customers. We also have manuals in Braille for visually impaired customers in all our service centres, concluded Al Hajri.

DEWAs delegation participated in the Earth Hour in the Sultanate of Oman, which has been organized at the Hormuz Grand Hotel in the capital, Muscat.
Omar bin Sahoh, a specialist of Customer Relations, and Jassim Ahmed, deputy Senior Manager - strategy and excellence, lit candles during the event to emphasize the importance of Earth Hour in supporting the efforts to achieve environmental sustainability.