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 mere 17.6%) who responded to the 2021 Utility Fee Survey charge a meter reread fee. The graph above shows how much each utility charges.
Before I explain why you should be charging a meter reread fee, let me pause for a minute and ask if you’ve participated in the 2023 Utility Fee Survey? If not, would you please take a minute to complete the survey now?
What is a meter reread fee?
A meter reread fee is assessed when a customer believes their meter was read incorrectly (even though you know the reading is right) and insists you send someone out to reread their meter. Of course, you wouldn’t charge the fee for the rare occasions where the original reading was indeed wrong.
Why should you charge a meter reread fee?
Unless you’re using an AMI system where you can read meters from your office, rereading a customer’s meter requires sending someone to their home. Doing so incurs labor, vehicle use, and fuel costs, all of which should be reimbursed by your fee.
However, unlike most fees, which are instituted to generate revenue, a meter reread fee will likely serve another purpose – as a deterrent.
What do I mean by this? Consider the following conversation:
Customer: “My bill is higher than normal this month. You must have read my meter wrong.”
CSR: “We verify all readings closely. I’m pretty sure your bill is accurate.”
Customer: “Can you double check the reading?”
CSR: “We’ll be glad to.”
Contrast that conversation with this one:
Customer: “My bill is higher than normal this month. You must have read my meter wrong.”
CSR: “We verify all readings closely. I’m pretty sure your bill is accurate.”
Customer: “Can you double check the reading?”
CSR: “We’ll be glad to, however there is a $25 fee if it turns out we read the meter correctly the first time.”
Customer (after some hemming and hawing): “That’s OK. Maybe I did use that much after all.”
The real value of a meter reread fee is the elimination of many needless, nuisance trips to customer’s homes to reread a meter that was read correctly in the first place.
Utility Billing Mailbag
One of the things I enjoy most about speaking engagements is the time for questions after I’m done speaking. I often get questions about the topic I just presented. However, if there’s still time left after answering all the questions related to my presentation, I like to open it up for general questions.
Taking that idea one step forward, I’m starting something I’m calling the Utility Billing Mailbag. Send me your questions and I’ll take my best shot at answering them.
I would like this to become a regular feature, but that will require lots of questions. Are you up to it? You can ask your questions at the Mailbag page on my website and I’ll post the answers on my social media. So be sure to follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
Complete the 2023 Utility Fee Survey
If you haven’t already completed the 2023 Utility Fee Survey, and would like to, please click here to complete the survey. It should take less than five minutes to complete.
If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at gary@utilityinformationpipeline.com or call me at 919-673-4050.
Thank you in advance for your participation in the 2023 Utility Fee Survey.
Are there other fees you aren’t charging?
Is your utility charging all the fees you should be? If you’re not sure, please give me a call at 919-673-4050 or email me at gary@utilityinformationpipeline.com to learn how a business review could help you find out.
© 2023 Gary Sanders