The Maysville KU office is scheduled to close at the end of March.
The Kentucky Utilities office in Maysville will be closed, officials with the company said.
Media liaison for the utility company Liz Pratt said 26 locations will be closing in phases over the next two years with the Maysville office set to close its doors on March 31.
“As with much of the nation, LG and E, Kentucky Utilities and Old Dominion Power are evolving during recent times of change. After careful evaluation, we’ve made the difficult decision to close all of our 26 business offices, which serve as walk-in centers for customer interactions across our service territories. Closures will occur in phases over the next two years, but timing could be accelerated due to challenges such as staffing levels. As specific offices are scheduled to close, the company will use various communications channels, several months in advance, to provide customers with more information,” Pratt said.
Pratt said newsletters are being sent along with monthly billing statements to customers who have visited the walk-in locations in the past three months to provide them with information on how to make payments online, through the LG and E mobile app, through the automated phone system or through the company website.
According to Pratt service requests and other power-related problems can still be handled by calling the automated line and service/repair personnel will still be in the area — the closing only refers to the walk-in bill pay centers.
“It’s not a decision we made lightly, however a variety of factors influenced the closing of our business offices,” she said.
A decline in walk-in transactions since 2014, putting customer traffic at the business offices declining by 42 percent is one of the reasons Pratt gave for the decision to close.
“Also there’s been increased staffing challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, and like so many industries nationwide, job openings were difficult to fill,” she said.
Customers are more frequently using the company’s self-serve digital options, including the online My Account and mobile app, which has had more than 344,000 downloads since its launch in early 2021, she said.
She said the move is also now considered best practice among similar utility companies, stating that investor-owned utilities have been moving away from the walk-in center model and no other Kentucky-based IOU utilizes business offices.
“Throughout this transition, we are focused on supporting customers and affected employees. We expect to add more retail options for our cash-paying customers over the next several months. A list of retailers accepting cash payments on our behalf (like Kroger and Walmart) is available at lge-ku.com/payment (click “In Person” tab, find “Authorized payment agents” and click “Visit a location nearest you”),” she said.
LG and E are developing videos and additional materials to educate customers on other ways to interact with the company, including through the mobile app and online My Account.
She stated the company is also working with business office employees who have a wide and or in-depth range of specialized skills valuable to the company to help them transition into other employment inside the company.
“We’re working to identify potential opportunities within the company for impacted business office employees so they can use their vast knowledge and skill set elsewhere in the company,” she said.
Pratt said the company will work to make sure customers still have the same quality and reliability of service they are used to and the closing of the offices should not impact or disrupt services.
