MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MLGW's board announced the transition plan for the company Wednesday following the resignation of the current president and CEO J.T. Young.
Alonzo Weaver, who will be taking control of leadership, joined MLGW in 1983. He said he is primarily focused on continuing the improvement of the utility company’s infrastructure.
“Our goal is going to be the same," Weaver said. "We’ve started down a track that’s improving our infrastructure and we’re still going to work on that.”
Many living in Memphis have been concerned about MLGW service, not because of power outages, but due to long call wait times. This issue, along with ensuring the safety of employees, is also topping the interim chief utility officer's priority list.
“We got to improve the customer experience," Weaver said. "We got a lot of concerns around the call center and getting through the call center.”
Weaver says a major issue the utility has had as it concerns customer service is calls being abandoned. Weaver believes solving this problem will include hiring for vacancies in MLGW's call center and automating the phone system.
“The other steps that are going to be involved is looking at automation; trying to make it possible for customers to do a lot of work by touchtone phone automation or speak so that they can get what they need, the information they need to get without necessarily having to talk to someone about it," Weaver said.
In addition to these future improvements, community offices closed during the pandemic, with the exception of the office on Summer Ave., are expected to reopen next week with a new online system that will allow customers to schedule appointments ahead of time.