When I present my most popular presentation at utility conferences, there are two takeaways I want all participants to leave with. These are (a) charge an application fee, and (b) charge the cut-off fee to all accounts when the cut-off […]
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As I’m starting to analyze the preliminary results of the 2023 Utility Fee Survey, I’m surprised many utilities still don’t charge an application fee. Before I explain why you should be charging an application fee, let me pause for a […]
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Recently, on one of the listservs I follow, a question was asked about billing for multiple units served by a master meter. There are two common ways of billing for multiple units, the Average Bill and Multiple Minimums methods. Let’s […]
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Does your utility charge a meter reread fee? If you’re like the vast majority of utilities who responded to the 2021 Utility Fee Survey, you don’t. And you should! It’s a fact – only 25 of the 142 utilities (a […]
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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 […]
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There’s an old story about a young girl helping her mother prepare the holiday ham. Mom explains that they must cut a little off both ends of the ham before putting it in a pan to go in the oven. […]
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During a business review I recently completed, one of the areas identified was the need for additional training to take full advantage of the features of their meter reading software. This wasn’t an office with staff turnover, rather just the […]
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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 […]
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I recently joined another listserv and one of the recent posts inquired about security deposits, including how much other utilities charged. Periodically, I see utilities asking how much other utilities charge as a security deposit. While this may provide an […]
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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 […]
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