I subscribe to a number of daily emails – probably too many, if I’m honest with myself! One of them, Axios Finish Line, arrives at bedtime and this one from last week really stood out to me.

What really spoke to me was this paragraph about doing “stuff”:

What qualifies as “stuff” in a utility office?

When I conduct a business review for a utility, some of the obvious things I look for are unnecessary processes. All too often, these unnecessary processes (or “stuff” in the context of the Axios newsletter) are a result of TTWWADI Syndrome.

In too many utility business offices I’ve worked with, the billing clerk spends time reviewing every customer’s charges individually before printing bills. In most cases I’ve observed, this means reviewing a printed report, which also wastes paper along with time!

Is your office doing this?

Does someone in your office review the entire billing register before sending bills? If so, I would challenge you to ask the hard questions and decide if this is really necessary, or just “stuff”.

Hopefully, your billing software provides exception reports that identify extremely high or low usage or bill amounts. These reports should identify the same issues as the time consuming, manual review process. If your billing system doesn’t provide reporting like this, it might be time to consider new software!

Is your office still doing “stuff”?

Is your business office operating as efficiently as possible? Or are you still doing “stuff”? If you are, or if you don’t know, please give me a call at 919-673-4050, or email me at gary@utilityinformationpipeline.com to learn more about how a business review could help you find out.

© 2024 Gary Sanders