Recently, a long-time newsletter subscriber reached out to me asking if I had any experience with utilities going cashless. Her concern is that it takes her staff about half an hour each day to balance their cash drawers and make […]
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Payments
I recently completed a business review for a utility that tracks several payment trends. One of these is shown in the graph below (clicking on the graph will open a larger image in a new window). Do you track this […]
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I’ve written previously about how bank drafts are the easiest way to collect payments. They are also generally less expensive to process than credit card payments. As a result, many utilities offer incentives to get customers to sign up for […]
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Does your office use a device similar to the one pictured above? If you do, are you getting as much value from it as you could? Remote deposit capture For several years, many banks have promoted check scanners to facilitate […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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…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 […]
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Last week, a newsletter subscriber emailed me and inquired if I had written about offering incentives for customers signing up for bank drafts or paperless billing (ebilling). I have touched on it in the past, but I’ve not written a […]
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I recently completed a business review for a utility with considerable outstanding unpaid debt. When I asked if they were participating in the state’s debt setoff program, they were not. Let’s look at why that may be a mistake. What […]
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Hopefully, you know that bank drafts are far and away the easiest way to collect payments. If you’re not, the obvious question is, why? (Editorial note: even if you’re already accepting bank drafts, please don’t stop reading now. There will […]
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