From the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have looked for ways to respond in the most helpful ways for our customers. Our senior leadership team met on March 15 and immediately reviewed the available data and impact to our customers. It was decided to temporarily suspend residential service disconnections. While at the time we weren’t sure what to expect, we knew we had to move quickly to provide support for our customers.
As we navigated that first week, several employees began working from home and social distancing measures were put into place for those employees that remained in the building. For our outside crews, we began staggering start time schedules so that interaction between employee groups were limited. On March 19, we closed our building to the public to adhere to CDC guidelines and more employees began working from home. Our drive thru remained open for payments and other Customer Service processes.
To offer additional support for our customers, we modified our payment arrangement process and expanded the BTES Help Your Neighbor Program. We applied for and received $15,000 from the TVA COVID-19 Community Care Fund to go into the BTES Help Your Neighbor Program and worked closely with the Salvation Army to streamline the assistance application process so more customers could receive help quickly. BTES also pledged $15,000 for the Help Your Neighbor Program and began a community campaign in hopes of raising an additional $15,000. Together, this would provide an additional $45,000 to help those customers who have been impacted by COVID-19. Thank you to those who have donated to our Help Your Neighbor Program and for supporting our community in other ways during this time.
While most of our Customer Service processes can be completed online or over the phone, there are a few things that require in-person visits to BTES. So, to be able to provide the excellent service our customers expect while adhering to social distancing guidelines, we implemented a mobile trailer to house a couple of our Customer Service Representatives to help during high customer volume days. This trailer is in the BTES parking lot to provide an open-air environment for our customers and additional room to social distance while conducting business.
In the midst of changing several of our internal processes, we quickly realized that we needed to offer support to our local students. We worked closely with the school systems and developed the BTES COVID-19 Educational Support Program to provide 100Mb of Internet service for free to current BTES electric customers that have a student in the home and currently do not have access to the Internet. As part of this program, we also opened our WIFI hot spots at BTES and in downtown Bristol for free access to anyone that needed it.
We also developed our COVID-19 Customer Action Plan that offers customized solutions for each customer that has fallen behind in paying their bill. We realize that what may work for one customer will not work for another and we will work with each customer to see what options are available.
Our senior leadership team and other BTES employees continue to participate in weekly calls and webinars with other local power companies and local, state and national organizations to stay abreast of what is happening in our world. As we continue to navigate this situation, we know that other processes and procedures will need to be modified and we stand ready to support our community as much as we can.
BTES is committed to doing what we can to help our customers, our employees, and the community we serve. Thank you for allowing us to serve you.
