E-Newsletter

The electricity distribution sector is accelerating investments in call centers all over Turkey in order to increase customer satisfaction and service quality. In addition to existing many call centers that are already active and giving service, the sector founded 9 new call centers all around Turkey. In these call centers more than 2 thousand new jobs were created.

The sector took consumer satisfaction into focus and plan their investments within this framework. ‘The 9th Sectoral Meeting organized by the Association of Distribution System Operators of Turkey (ELDER) in Trabzon in May, 2016, was the beginning of new customer satisfaction-oriented steps to be taken in the sector.

The Industry started to set up new call centers all over Anatolia within the framework of the road map and standards introduced by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).

9 New Call Centers with More Than 2.000 Employee
New call centers were founded and started giving service in 9 provinces which are Denizli, Tekirdağ, Kars, Adana, Rize, Trabzon, Konya, Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman. Until now, seven of them were officially opened by Berat Albayrak, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and Mustafa Yılmaz, Chairman of Energy Market Regulatory Authority and senior officials of energy sector.

In these call centers more than 2 thousand people were employed. With these new investments, call centers will ensure that subscribers who call the customer service can connect to the operator within 45 seconds maximum. By this speed of answering the calls, learning the demands and solving the problems are expected to get faster.

The distribution companies also creating employment for more than 5 thousand people in order to increase the quality of service in the field.

The cities where call centers opened and the employment figures created are as follow:

A company that learns quickly the environment it operates, is a company that show also responsibility. In the age of globalization, where it is not unusual for a company to operate in many different countries, this is even more important because you have to not know many different cultures, and adopt to them to the best of your ability. This is the philosophy that is becoming not only a choice but rather an integral part of a company.

Operating in many different countries from around the world, we as company have adopted this philosophy and often we have brought it to the next level.

A good example of this is most certainly our work we do in the beautiful country of Kosovo. Kosovo is a small country that came out of devastating war, and in 2008 declared independence. As a new country, Kosovo was making leaps towards becoming part of the free world and in this path naturally was facing many challenges. Having being under a repressive occupation for several decades, the society of Kosovo was awakening from a bad dream. Society had been deprived the very basic rights like healthcare, education equal right to work and most importantly lacked freedom. This of course had left many scars that needed to be healed.

But at the same time, Kosovo also had something that many countries of the world would wish- a vibrant, energic youth, that was eager to make up for the time lost.

This is the way we saw Kosovo when we first started to look into investment opportunities there. Taking our philosophy to make a difference in every environment we operate, from the onset of our presence in Kosovo we began to see how we can contribute. Looking at the youth of this country, their vibrant spirit, and their eagerness to move ahead, it was evident that this is the area where we should get engaged. This is how KEDS Academy, a CSR initiative of the Kosovo Electricity Distribution and Supply Company was born.

KEDS Academy is established with the aim to support local students of electro-engineering field in their further academic and professional development. The Academy initially included both, students from the Public University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina” and high school students from technical and engineering fields. Currently it has opened its doors for students from all public universities throughout Kosovo and all technical high schools in major centers of Kosovo.

From the time when it was just an idea, KEDS Academy was supposed to have a different approach in learning. Lectures that would be held from eminent professors from Boğaziçi University and KEDS experts would be further expanded with practical work that would be offered by hardworking managers of KEDS. There was given the opportunity to see from up close what was taught in the classroom.

Since its existence, which is not very long, KEDS Academy managed to receive some of the prestigious awards in the field of Social Responsibility. KEDS Academy received four prestigious Stevie Awards in Paris during 2014. These were among the first international awards for Kosovo in the area of Social Responsibilities for companies. Not long after receiving these awards, KEDS Academy went beyond the ocean, receiving another award in the United States.

KEDS won the “Honorable Mentioned” price in category of “Social Good” from PR News within an exceptional competition with companies from around the world.

In 2016 through KEDS Academy program, KEDS has continued to receive international awards. In April of this year, KEDS received three awards form Global Business Excellence Awards, headquartered in the UK. Specifically, KEDS received the awards in Leadership Excellence, in Community Initiative and the Human Resources Team.

The success of any initiative largely depends on the commitment and work devoted to it. And this has never missed but rather has grown. Initially we had only the Public University of Prishtina as a partner and today we are in partnership with all public universities of Kosovo. At the same time, while initially just technical schools of the capital were part of Academy, today part of this program are all technical schools across Kosovo. Boğaziçi University continues to be a pillar of KEDS Academy, which now has become a pride for this prestigious university. While Çalık-Limak corporate support is greater than ever.

KEDS Academy now is being taken as an example of success to be applied in other countries where these corporations operate. The student’s interest to be part of this academy is greater than ever and we are succeeding to become an address for a chance and hope for young Kosovars.

When an initiative achieves its goals, it gives you great satisfaction. When that initiative exceeds your expectations, and becomes an example that is taken from others, is testimony that you are not making a difference only to those that you aimed but beyond. KEDS Academy has done just that, and we are proud and honored to be part of this success.

Survey

We as ELDER is working on a R&D project called SmarterEMC2 (www.smarteremc2.eu) funded under European Commission H2020 program. We have prepared a very short survey that can be completed within 2 minutes with multiple choice questions. We need your kind replies in order to achieve more valuable technologies for consumers, suppliers, distribution system operators and many others. Hereby below you can find the survey link to start and you can push “Done” button in order to finish the survey.

CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY
https://tr.surveymonkey.com/r/76DS8BK

Thank you very much for your kind contribution.
ELDER - Association of Electricity Distribution System Operators

Agenda

Energy Efficiency Forum and Exhibition
January 11-12, 2017/Istanbul, Turkey

Power Next Energy
January 12-14, 2017 /Istanbul, Turkey

10. The World Future Energy Summit
January 16-19, 2017 /Abu Dhabi

Ecology’17
February 17-18, 2017/Istanbul, Turkey

Distributech
January 31- February 02 2017 / San Diego, CA

New and Renewable Energy Resources for Sustainable Future
February 02-04, 2017/ India

Middle East Electricity
February 14-16, 2017 / Dubai World Center

Electrical Vehicle Congress (EEVC 2017)
March 14-16, 2017/Geneva

International Clean Coal Summit
March 22-23, 2017/Istanbul, Turkey

Power&Electricity World Africa 2017
March 28- 29, 2017/Johannesburg

19. Electric Power Conference&Exhibition
April 10-13, 2017/Chicago

5th International Istanbul Smart Grids and Cities Congress and Fair ICSG Istanbul 2017
April 19-21, 2017/Istanbul, Turkey

23rd International Energy & Environment Fair & Conference
May 03-05, 2017/Istanbul, Turkey