Helping utilities improve business office operations and better serve their customers
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I have a wealth of blog content from the past 11 years on my previous employer's website. To make posts easier to find, I've categorized them on the Archives page.
Two recent newsletters recapped the results of the 2022 Utility Staffing Survey. One question I’ve asked in each of the four Utility Staffing Surveys, but never analyzed, is what percentage of payments are received by each of the following methods: […]
As we approach the New Year, I want to wish you a very Happy New Year! This past year has certainly been an interesting one! After finding myself unexpectedly without a job in April, I was provided the opportunity to […]
This is the second of two consecutive Utility Information Pipeline issues reporting the results of the 2022 Utility Staffing Survey. 88 utilities, representing 25 states, ranging in size from 35 to 192,000 active accounts participated in the survey. This is […]
For the past several months, I’ve been conducting the 2022 Utility Staffing Survey. This survey has become a biennial survey, alternating years with the Utility Fee Survey. The initial Utility Staffing Survey was in 2016, followed by 2018 and 2020. […]
Before we get to today’s article, there are a couple of things to call to your attention where time is of the essence. Days of Exposure webinar I will be leading a series of four webinars for MuniBilling and the […]
In my recent interactions, I’ve been somewhat surprised at how many utilities are still printing their own bills in-house and haven’t moved to outsourcing. Without knowing exactly why they haven’t made the switch, I’ve come up with three possible reasons… […]
During the last couple of conferences I’ve spoken at, I’ve been surprised by how many utilities are still taking phone credit card payments in the office. There are at least three downsides to taking phone credit card payments in person […]
I’ve seen two related scenarios lately which merit discussing in more detail. The first case was a business review I recently completed for a utility that charges their cut-off fee as two separate charges – a cut-off fee, then a […]
During the Q&A period after speaking at a conference last week, one of the attendees asked me what I thought about a final bill fee. First-time question That’s a question I’ve never been asked before, so I had to think […]
I just completed a business review for a utility and calculated their Days of Exposure while I was on-site. If you’re not familiar with Days of Exposure, it’s the number of days of service a customer ends up owing for […]