The past three issues have focused on customer-friendly policies, including repayment plans, third-party notifications, and customer-selected due dates. Let’s continue the trend by looking at utility customer assistance programs. Customer assistance plans can take many forms. Common types include low-income […]
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The last two blog posts have focused on customer-friendly policies, including repayment plans and third-party notifications. Continuing the customer-friendly trend, let’s look at another option: customer-selected due dates. This can be especially helpful for senior citizens who rely on Social […]
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Sometimes elderly or ill customers need a backup set of eyes and ears to ensure they pay on time. That’s where third-party notification helps.
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Recently, there were posts on two listservs inquiring about payment arrangement policies. This made me realize I haven’t written about payment plans in some time, so let’s take a look. Since I will be including payment plans and payment arrangements […]
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In addition to the recent postage rate increase that took effect on Sunday, this news article serves as yet another reason to encourage your customers to pay electronically rather than mailing a paper check. In this example of check fraud, […]
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If your utility follows a July-to-June fiscal year, you’re probably thinking I’m referring to the new budget year. Actually, I’m not, but if you haven’t kept up with the news, it might negatively impact said budget! So, what am I […]
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The last two Utility Information Pipeline issues have been Part I and Part II of the results of the 2026 Utility Staffing Survey. This year’s survey is the sixth biennial Utility Staffing Survey I’ve conducted. For comparison, here are the […]
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This is the second of two Utility Information Pipeline issues reporting the results of the 2026 Utility Staffing Survey. 95 utilities from 18 states, ranging in size from 94 to 111,000 active accounts, participated in the survey. This is the […]
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For the past three months, I’ve been conducting the 2026 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 additional surveys in […]
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When I was a child, and I got in trouble for doing something I shouldn’t have been doing, I would protest to my mother, “But so-and-so was doing it, too.” Her response often was, “If he jumped off a cliff, […]
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