New service notifies customers when power goes out and returns | Home & Garden

Feel that vibration in your pocket or hear your familiar ringtone? It could be Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. letting you know your power is out and when it will be back on.

This proactive communication plan is a step toward keeping customers better informed during electrical outages, just as they asked. The new service will contact every customer affected by a power outage, whether they report it themselves or not, and provide updated information about the outage. When there is an outage, the company will either call the customer by phone or send text message updates based on contact information we have on file.

“Customers tell us they want information about an outage almost as much as they want to have their power restored in order to better plan their lives,” said Chip Arnould, regional customer service manager, “and we listened.”

Customers do not need to do anything to receive outage information; the company will send it to them automatically. Outage information “touchpoints” include:

• Customers receive an initial outage message letting them know Entergy Gulf States Louisiana is aware of their outage.
• Customers are notified when a serviceman arrives on the scene. If additional crews are needed, customers are notified with a change in estimated restoration time, as well as the cause of the outage.
• Customers receive a message when their power has been restored that includes the cause of the outage.

"We will contact all customers about an outage affecting them, but we encourage customers to tell us how they prefer to be contacted by calling 1-800-9OUTAGE (1-800-968-8243) and selecting option 5, or texting REG to 368374 from their cellphone,” said Arnould.

The company will not send outage notifications to customers during a “quiet time” period between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. If the outage continues after 8 a.m., customers will then receive the most current update.

Customers who choose not to receive outage updates can be removed from the service by using one of the methods above.

Entergy’s Louisiana utility companies serve more than one million customers through the operating companies Entergy Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. With operations in southern, central and northeastern Louisiana, the companies are part of Entergy Corporation’s electric system serving 2.8 million customers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.