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Recently, a prospect who was interested in conducting a business review encountered pushback from their board when they presented the idea. They reached out to me and asked if I could put together some reasons why using an outside consultant […]
Recently, I wrote about the steps required to convert from billing in larger units, such as hundreds or thousands, to billing in individual gallons. (If your utility bills in cubic feet rather than gallons, please mentally substitute “cubic feet” everywhere […]
Several years ago, a customer of a municipal utility in Florida made the news for paying her $493 water bill all in pennies. This was, in her words, a “peaceful protest” of her high water bill, for which the utility […]
In a previous blog post, I wrote about why, when moving to an AMI system, I feel it’s imperative to read and bill in individual gallons. Today, as I’m assisting a customer with making the switch, I thought it might […]
Recently, in one of the listservs I subscribe to, someone inquired if any other local governments were accepting Apple Pay or Google Pay as forms of payment. Unfortunately, the post didn’t get any responses, but it did get me to […]
Today we’re going to look at the three Rs – not the old standby Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. Instead, we’ll examine three actual Rs – Roles, Responsibilities, and Rights. These three Rs impact both your utility and your customers. Which […]
…postage rates are going up again! Yes, indeed, on July 14, the cost of a first-class letter will increase five cents from $.68 to $.73. The cost of a postcard will increase three cents from $.53 to $.56. This means […]
…a business review? If you haven’t, maybe it’s time you did. Why do we need a business review? I met with a prospective customer last week and, as we discussed what I do, I explained why a business review makes […]
This year’s Utility Staffing Survey represents the fifth Utility Staffing Survey, so I thought I would try to examine some trends. You can review the results of all five previous surveys here. Meter reading processing The 2016 Utility Staffing Survey […]
This is the second of two consecutive Utility Information Pipeline issues reporting the results of the 2024 Utility Staffing Survey. 122 utilities representing 21 states, ranging in size from 20 to 137,661 active accounts participated in the survey. This is […]