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 […]
0 comments
Payments
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 […]
0 comments
Wait for it… the US Postal Service is warning customers to not send checks through the mail! Not cash, which has always been a risk, but checks! I know it feels like I’m unfairly beating up on the Postal Service […]
0 comments
A recent post on one of the listservs I subscribe to asked about how other utilities deal with customers who pay online using an echeck to defer disconnection on cut-off day. In this case, a customer would enter the echeck […]
0 comments
A few issues back I explored the pros and cons of charging convenience fees. In that blog post, I mentioned the all-too-common argument in support of charging convenience fees – “It’s not fair for all of our customers to have […]
0 comments
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: […]
0 comments
Last week, in one of the listservs I follow, the question was posed if other utilities charge a convenience fee for credit card payments. I find this question asked frequently when I speak at utility conferences. Two points of view […]
0 comments
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 […]
0 comments
A couple of months ago I wrote about delivery delays the Postal Service recently implemented. Unfortunately, longer delivery times aren’t the only bad news coming from the Postal Service – they recently raised rates for the second time in a […]
0 comments
I recently saw a social media post ranking NFL quarterbacks into tiers. This got me thinking about random hierarchies like the food pyramid and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which led to the idea of a hierarchy of payments. I’ve always […]
2 comments