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8.3.04 Updated M.U.D. bill offers significant enhancements,
but causes confusion for some customers In May 2004, Metropolitan Utilities District (M.U.D.) rolled out a new bill, a product of its recently implemented $8.4 million Indus customer information system (CIS). An updated look is designed to provide additional clarity, including many enhancements customers have requested. According to Mari Matulka, director of corporate communications, the utility has not changed its bill in 35 years. Located in Omaha, Neb., the utility serves 180,500 water and 194,465 natural gas customers and is the fourth largest public gas utility in the U.S. It also collects sewer and trash fees for the municipalities it serves. In an effort to inform customers of the billing change, M.U.D published a newsletter which included an explanatory diagram of the new bill. Information is listed on the utility's website, press releases have been issued, and local news stations and newspapers have communicated the change. While some customers may easily adjust to the bill's new look, others have begun flooding the contact center with calls. Although Matulka says it is hard to determine how many calls M.U.D. is receiving during peak times, she reports, "Our lines are overloaded so we are encouraging our customers to use e-mail," says Matulka. The suggestion has prompted more customers to use this channel, she says. "From July 1-31, we received 1,700 e-mails from customers." She adds that the utility expect the number of e-mails to increase as upcoming ads are run in local newspapers. Five additional customer service representatives (CSRs) have been hired to alleviate the utility's call volume increase, and the 25 current CSRs are working to become more comfortable with the new technology. Additionally, M.U.D. is keeping a list of all incoming e-mails and adding these customers to its outgoing news release list to inform them of future changes. M.U.D. took into careful consideration customer comments about what they would like to see on their monthly bills, and attempted to add those suggestions to the new design. The new bills are even presented in 14 point type to assist visually-impaired customers. However, although the changes are defined in the utility's bill stuffers, some customers may have neglected to read these informational pieces, says Matulka, leading to the rush of customer service calls. While M.U.D.'s old bill showed usage units, the new bill details the precise cost per therm for natural gas and cost per gallon for water to clarify consumption to the customer. Also, graphs detailing usage for both water and gas are listed on the statement. The increase in calls is likely due to a change in the way a customer's service charge is printed on the new bill. It is broken out to provide additional clarity, but some customers have questioned if they are being charged an additional amount, says Matulka. Matulka adds that M.U.D. does not do monthly meter readings, but instead, "We read meters two months in a row and then we do an estimate." Customers had in the past asked to be informed which bills included actual readings and when bills were estimated. Now, each of these requests has been granted, and "we even have what the reading was on the meter on the bill." Although there has been some customer confusion, "I think we had a good plan," Matulka says of the new bill and the utility's promotional and informational efforts. As for handling the call volume, the situation should become more manageable as customers determine how to read the bill, use other contact channels such as e-mail, and CSRs become more familiar with the new system, enabling them to more rapidly handle customer calls. Click below to see an explanation of the new bill. |
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