What do you value as a customer

[Sam_2.0]

Nov 21, 2013 13:43:04 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Do you send mailers with the bill notifying customers about subsidies, access to low income help, etc?

Yes. And they tell me that we are being sneaky by sending those with the bill - because we all know no one reads their bills until they get the yellow notice (actual words from a customer). We send out press releases, emails, bill notifications, special inserts, links on our website.

[Angel!]

Nov 21, 2013 13:44:17 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Which means we get dozens of calls each day from people fully intending to not pay the current bill & asking when it will be delinquent enough to generate a notice so they can go apply for assistance.

Wow.  That sounds like a fun job

[goldensam]

I completely understand your frustration.  I worked for a utility in a municipality that was also the only shop in town.  I had to be escorted to my car by the police a handful of times because of very angry (shut off) customers.  I've been screamed at, threatened, and berated.  Man I loved that job

[Sam_2.0]

So those that use their utility company's websites, what features do you use? Account access for bills, paying, transferring service, setting up arrangements, etc are available now. Website was just redesigned to be easier to navigate and not look like it was made in 1999. But we still have a segment of customers without internet access that receive a paper bill monthly, and those are the ones that hate us.

[Sam_2.0]

It's fun, isnt't it @goldensam?

[Deleted]

Nov 21, 2013 14:00:36 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

So those that use their utility company's websites, what features do you use? Account access for bills, paying, transferring service, setting up arrangements, etc are available now. Website was just redesigned to be easier to navigate and not look like it was made in 1999. But we still have a segment of customers without internet access that receive a paper bill monthly, and those are the ones that hate us.

push to have them on auto pay?

[Sam_2.0]

Nov 21, 2013 14:03:51 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Nov 21, 2013 14:00:36 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

So those that use their utility company's websites, what features do you use? Account access for bills, paying, transferring service, setting up arrangements, etc are available now. Website was just redesigned to be easier to navigate and not look like it was made in 1999. But we still have a segment of customers without internet access that receive a paper bill monthly, and those are the ones that hate us.

push to have them on auto pay?

No auto-pay. These are low income customers that have to juggle things around to pay the bills and tend to pay us every other month or every three months when they get a notice. And a lot of un-banked customers in this segment too that use cash pay stations or money orders.

[cronewitch]

A fine balance between being understanding and following company rules. Have the person sorry the customer is unable to pay but not trashing the company for having to disconnect power. Not being on hold and not being transferred more than once helps. Making them think they have a contact they can ask for and be remembered helps too. It must be awful to run out of options but you can't expect the utility to keep giving unpaid service. Keeping a list of things they can consider like charities or a keep warm fund or even reminding them they may be able to sell something or get a loan from family but really you don't want workers taking responsibility to insure power stays on so the customer is clearly responsible to figure out what to do.

[nogooddeed]

Nov 21, 2013 13:15:46 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Most of our customers contact us less than once per year. It's a utility - they call to set up service and call to end service. Between that point most call: 1) if there's an outage, 2) to make payment arrangements when delinquent, and 3) for products and services.

Just trying to come up with ways that I can improve the perception of service for the customers I have. But most of them are delinquent (60%) and have been denied arrangements due to returned checks, broken arrangements, or stealing/tampering once turned off. We've been given the task of improving our customers' perception of our service over the next year, but I am having a hard time coming up with something to meet that certain customer segment. There's really only so much I can do when the last time someone paid was 6 months ago.

I want good customer service and if there's a continuing problem, a profuse apology.

Here's my experience with a local utility that has no competition.  I received a bill marked "Final Bill" this summer.  What?  I had not authorized cancellation of service.  I call and am told that a woman had called, said she had purchased the house and needed service put in her name.  Shortly thereafter, she called back and told them "Oops, gave you the wrong address".  I was amazed that they would cancel service in this situation without some form of confirmation from the current user. 

Payment to this utility is taken automatically from my checking account.  The customer service rep said that the "final bill" amount would be taken and that I would receive an additional bill for the remaining days in the service period and that everything had been corrected.  Right   The amount for the shorter service period was never taken from my checking account.  I call again.  Well, we'll just add that to your next bill and the automatic payment will pay for both service periods.  Right.    Next bill came with a past due fee.  I call again to inquire why I'm charged a past due fee when NONE of this is my fault.  Told they will remove the past due fee and the prior two service period amounts will be added to the NEXT bill and the automatic payment would occur.  Right.  The next bill came with another past due fee and they charged me on the wrong usage plan.  I call again and demand to speak with a supervisor.  I'm told "sorry, when your account was reinstated, we didn't complete all the necessary codes".  What the frick?  You cancel my service without any confirmation from me, you fail to set up my account with the exact same codes I had before and the best I get is a weak "sorry"? 

[Peace Of Mind]

Nov 21, 2013 13:15:46 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Most of our customers contact us less than once per year. It's a utility - they call to set up service and call to end service. Between that point most call: 1) if there's an outage, 2) to make payment arrangements when delinquent, and 3) for products and services.

Just trying to come up with ways that I can improve the perception of service for the customers I have. But most of them are delinquent (60%) and have been denied arrangements due to returned checks, broken arrangements, or stealing/tampering once turned off. We've been given the task of improving our customers' perception of our service over the next year, but I am having a hard time coming up with something to meet that certain customer segment. There's really only so much I can do when the last time someone paid was 6 months ago.

60% are delinquent?  Is this a low income area?  If so, I know that most of these people think in weeks and smaller increments.  I'd put something on their bill (not an insert as those are never read) that could say:

Thank you for helping us help you.  We now offer weekly payments that would save you 10% from your monthly bill. 

Then I would set examples like:

If your utility bill is $100 per month you will only have to pay $22.50 per week to keep your power on.  (I'd show 4 examples of the most common amounts so they can see the amounts in black and white). If you can't offer a discount I'd still break it down to show the weekly amounts which look less overwhelming.

Rent-to-own companies have learned this trick for people who think this way. 

push to have them on auto pay?

Most of these type people don't even have a checking account. They pay in cash or by money order.

[greeniis10]

Nogooddeed, that sounds like a nightmare all too common.  Hope it gets fixed soon.

Sam, I sympathize because your situation sounds exactly like the electric company here: they are the only option; the ones who can afford their monthly bills have no problem with them (and very llittle contact); the ones who cannot afford their bills HATE them.  So, this one is a toughie. 

The only thing I can think of is here when people are disconnected for non-payment they are charged outrageous re-connect fees if and when they can get hooked up again.  Is there a way you could let late-payers avoid re-connect fees (assuming you charge them) if they pay within a certain time period?  Or waive re-connect fees ONE time but let them know it is only once?

IDK, I like the idea of reaching out to non and late-payers proactively (if possible) and then see if you can bargain with them a bit on fees. 

[Deleted]

Nov 21, 2013 13:35:53 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Make it fun, give them access to their account and info, make it easy to pay from there, give tips about saving energy there, give them badges for doing different things, like paying on time, saving energy, donating to the low income fund, etc...

Don't be silly. People who can't afford to pay their utility bills don't have smartphones.

[saveinla]

I wish my electric company would not send me usage statements saying I am using 100% more energy than my neighbor (since that house is empty for the past one year)  . As long as I am paying my bills, why do you care how much I am paying. 

[whoami]

I assume one of the things late/non payors hate is having to talk to a CSR and explain why they didnt pay the bill.  They are on the defensive from the beginning.  Allowing them to handle their business via website is probably the least adversarial way to reconnect them or handle payment plans....even if its just via web chat.

I bought a new car this summer and have had XM satellite service for free for 3 months.  One of the reasons I have not signed up to continue it is because while I can activate my ongoing service online, I cannot cancel online.  I have to go through the myriad of CSR trying to keep me going with the service.  That pisses me off.  I understand why they do it, but I dont want to have to spend 20 minutes trying to get rid of the service if I decide to cancel it down the road...which in turn makes me not want to sign up in the first place.  I probably will, but if they had a more user friendly cancellation method, I would have already signed up to continue my service.  As it is, I am just holding out till the last minute because I dont like their cancellation policy.  Its a PITA.

[Chocolate Lover]

Sam, as a former problem child for people like you, I just want to say thank you on behalf of all those you have had lots of patience with and done your best to work with. I did indeed hate being behind or juggling power vs heat in the winter and trying to keep up and the good attitude of those I dealt with on the phone went a long way to not making my bad day worse. 


I learned a few things from that time, namely how to stop being someone's meal ticket , but also that there are kind people out there.

[bookkeeper]

I used to work at a credit union for packing plant employees.  These were very low income people with circumstances much the same as your customers.  When I had to explain why their accounts had so many overdraft fees, returned checks, and other bad news, I was always sympathetic, but direct.  I took the time to explain the process and why they were over drafting or incurring fees.  I tried to teach them how to avoid this kind of pain in the future.  What I found is that many people did not have the basic skill of how to balance a check book or an understanding of how the federal reserve works.

In the utility business, I would suggest educating the customer about the cut off date for billing, the due date for the bill, the point at which late fees are incurred, the point at which disconnection occurs and the cost of all of this to the company and the customer.  Maybe a fact sheet that a customer could refer to about late payment, non payment and disconnection would help.  Sometimes people just can't put together the fact that if their utility bill is due on the 10th of the month, they really should pay it with the payroll they get on the 1st of the month.

I was taught that the public must hear something 3 times before it begins to sink in.  Having a fact sheet to give a customer who is chronically late may give that customer some information he can use.  Multiple methods of payment may help as well.  Credit cards, pay cash in person, debit from a checking account are all avenues that could work for different late payers.

A phone call or email at the beginning of a delinquent account would help rather than a notice presented after the account is 60 days past due.

At my DH's utility, they shortened the days from the billing cutoff date to the day the bills were mailed.  This automatically made the amount in arrears less, because the people had fewer days in which to use electricity that they couldn't pay for and kept the billing more current.

[resolution]

Nov 21, 2013 15:29:24 GMT -5 saveinla said:

I wish my electric company would not send me usage statements saying I am using 100% more energy than my neighbor (since that house is empty for the past one year)  . As long as I am paying my bills, why do you care how much I am paying. 

I really hate those too.  Ours takes the most efficient/empty 10% of the households in the neighborhood and compares us to them, and then tells us we aren't in the top 10%. They seem designed just to make us feel bad, when we have no intention of changing our usage.

[resolution]

I can't really speak to the low income customer, but our old power company got bought out by a new one a couple years ago and I really like and appreciate the new one.

• The new company upgraded the power lines so the outages are extremely rare, much better than before.
• When the power goes out we can call a 24 hour automated line that tells us whether it has been reported or not. If the system can't give us an estimate they offer to call us back once a time frame is established.
• During hurricane Sandy they had a map on the website that showed specifically where the outages were with a time estimate for repair. 
• They offer free energy audits and give us a little kit with free light bulbs.

My old power company had those pay as you go meters where you can swipe your card on it to buy more power when you need it. I'm not sure how popular they are though.

[Sam_2.0]

60% are delinquent? Is this a low income area?

Yeah, it's 60% of my particular customers, which are the ones that file high-level complaints with the state utilities commissions over delinquent bills. I don't know if we could offer a discount within our regulations, but offering an option to pay weekly would be great! Unless they don't want to bring cash to a pay station weekly. How do rent-to-own places handle payments?

Don't be silly. People who can't afford to pay their utility bills don't have smartphones.

Our website traffic shows they access our online payment system using Xboxes and smart phones mainly. Very few actual computers in this particular area.

Overall I am dealing with a SMALL segment of our customers. Maybe 500 out of nearly 1 million each year. But I really am concerned about people that need help and are trying to make it. I will go above & beyond the written rules to help out when I can. I am honestly trying to not let myself get jaded by the few that lie to me and steal repeatedly. And why the hell anyone would climb a pole to reconnect their own service is beyond me! But then they complain that our fees for theft are ridiculous Those are the customer that either make me laugh, or drink. Hahaha!

[msventoux]

Does your utility offer budget billing?  I can't remember where you're located, but we have pretty severe winters here and I know of some low income people who take advantage of paying a set amount monthly for the entire year, reevaluated once a year.  It's particularly helpful since those who heat with natural gas can have bills that are triple or more in the winter over the summer if they're not on the budget plan, and in winter is when many of the seasonal workers are out of work and they've already blown most of their earnings from summer. 

What I appreciate from our utilities are good customer service and a good website where I can avoid having to call in and speak with customer service.  Two things different utilities have done to annoy me are automatically round up our bill amounts and put the amount it was rounded up to into their charitable foundation for donating to various causes their board of directors chose.  Some people liked it, but it annoyed me that I had to opt out of it instead of opting into it.  Another thing is one of the utilities charges something like $5 extra per month to have them automatically bill your credit card.  So they're the one utility that I always send a bill pay check to instead of paying via credit card. 

[Sam_2.0]

Yes we do, msventoux. And several other options too.

I am glad to see that we do have most of the things you all are talking about, but that means we probably need to do a better job of letting our customers know that.

[Chocolate Lover]

My utility bill gets rounded up, but it goes into the assistance fund for those that may need help with their utility bills. I've never needed to use it, thankfully, so I don't know how it works. I'm ok with them doing that.

[bean29]

Nov 21, 2013 14:00:36 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

So those that use their utility company's websites, what features do you use? Account access for bills, paying, transferring service, setting up arrangements, etc are available now. Website was just redesigned to be easier to navigate and not look like it was made in 1999. But we still have a segment of customers without internet access that receive a paper bill monthly, and those are the ones that hate us.

We have 5 meters with the local utility company. All are set up on Auto Pay. I had 3 login ID's for 3 separate physical addresses. They came out last year and said you could only have one login ID per e-mail addy. I was a little put out that I had to set up the meter info all over again but now everything is under one log in. Historical info goes back several years so I shut off all the paper bills. I am happy with it now that it is set up.

Honestly i don't expect never to have to call the utility but don't make me hold more than 5-10 minutes. Voice mail queing may be great for corporate profits but is a major inconvenience from the customer side.

[mmhmm]

Another thing you might consider is letting these folks know the legal limitations you're faced with as a provider.  Too many of the people who find themselves in this position think the utility company should be able to make an exception for them (the special snowflake syndrome).  That's not possible because of regulations in place, but these folks don't know that.  If they were given that information along with suggestions on how they might make things work better for themselves (suggestions to help manage their accounts and their usage), it might help those who really want to pay but are having problems.  For those who simply don't want to have to pay, there's little to be done I'm afraid.

[Sam_2.0]

Nov 24, 2013 18:54:48 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Another thing you might consider is letting these folks know the legal limitations you're faced with as a provider.  Too many of the people who find themselves in this position think the utility company should be able to make an exception for them (the special snowflake syndrome).  That's not possible because of regulations in place, but these folks don't know that.  If they were given that information along with suggestions on how they might make things work better for themselves (suggestions to help manage their accounts and their usage), it might help those who really want to pay but are having problems.  For those who simply don't want to have to pay, there's little to be done I'm afraid.

We provide that upon turn on and once per year with bill inserts (actual booklet), it's available on our website, and it's available on the state PUC websites. We also do press releases at the beginning & end of Cold Weather Rules. But putting things in the bill means we are trying to hide it. I can't tell you how many times we hear that. And no one gets their bills in the mail, but they miraculously get the notice they need to go apply for assistance - that is printed and put in with the bills. The frustrating part is trying to make people take responsibility for their own actions. It's not their fault they tampered with the meter, it's OUR fault for disconnecting them.

At least this week everyone will be distracted with turkey, and it's too cold to disconnect residential service probably, so things should be really slow

[mmhmm]

Sadly, there's not a whole lot any of us can do to make people take responsibility for their own actions.  All we can do is try to help them do the best they can.  They've got to do it.  If you're providing the information they need, including the laws that affect your end of the bargain, the rest has to be up to them.  You can thank someone for paying off a delinquent bill as quickly as they can, and for making an effort to do their best.  That's about the best you can do in that situation, I think.

[Peace77]

In most areas, people can apply for energy assistance before they get a shut - off notice.

Perhaps, when a customer is late, you can inform them that you can accept partial payments and refer them to the local energy assistance program.   Whatever you send out should not be a bill insert.  Too many people who don't have money to pay a bill, simply don't even open the envelope.  It would be much better to send out a colorful postcard

You could provide referrals to other programs such as food banks, free meals, give away programs for school supplies and toys.  The less that a struggling family has to pay out for other things, the more funds that will be available for utilities.

Consider extending the time to disconnection for those who provide proof of applying for assistance or for those who make a partial payment of 10% or more of their bill.

[Miss Tequila]

Nov 21, 2013 13:15:46 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Most of our customers contact us less than once per year. It's a utility - they call to set up service and call to end service. Between that point most call: 1) if there's an outage, 2) to make payment arrangements when delinquent, and 3) for products and services.

Just trying to come up with ways that I can improve the perception of service for the customers I have. But most of them are delinquent (60%) and have been denied arrangements due to returned checks, broken arrangements, or stealing/tampering once turned off. We've been given the task of improving our customers' perception of our service over the next year, but I am having a hard time coming up with something to meet that certain customer segment. There's really only so much I can do when the last time someone paid was 6 months ago.

I guess I don't understand why you want to increase perception of your company that your deadbeat customers have....

[resolution]

Nov 25, 2013 7:54:49 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

Nov 21, 2013 13:15:46 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

I guess I don't understand why you want to increase perception of your company that your deadbeat customers have....

Her manager directed her to do so.

[Miss Tequila]

Nov 25, 2013 8:36:22 GMT -5 resolution said:

Nov 25, 2013 7:54:49 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

I guess I don't understand why you want to increase perception of your company that your deadbeat customers have....

Her manager directed her to do so.

Awww...a clueless manager...lol