Thursday, 27 August 2015

Adopting A Utility Billing Systems That Is Efficient

By Nancy Gardner


Utilities are services consumed by the public and are provided by a public service. Organizations that maintain the infrastructure for the aim of providing a public service are referred to as public functions. These services include water, sewage, natural gas and electricity. Utility billing systems can really reduce labor cost as this system is automated and does not require a lot of manpower.

The objective of a effective billing system is to keep track of the usage of the products and services provided and also to collect customer data. The utilities all strive to deliver water and energy in a safe and efficient way while protecting service source of revenue, minimizing the expenses and making sure the customer is satisfied.

This system has reduced the volume of calls to the utilities call centers from customers lodging complaints because some concerns from customers are sorted out by the mere click of a button. In this way, the automated system has increased customer satisfaction.

Automatic meter reading, on the other hand, can be done remotely without necessarily going to the customer meter. Automatic meter readers are generally regarded to as any system that makes it possible to read the meters at a distance of one hundred meters or more.

As part of installing an automated reading system the utility will have to put together an accurate database of their meters and customers. Most of these utilities report many unregistered service connections or missing accounts from the old database. Therefore, illegal connections are removed or registered appropriately into the system to generate new revenue.

Automated invoicing software enables the utilities to avoid negative lawsuits. Utilities should strive to minimize the risks of lawsuits from an injured worker or customer. The security of the employees is threatened when they have to read meters located in dangerous areas or areas with difficult terrain.

The accounts receivables should be considered before designing a functional billing software. Utilities which bill their customers quarterly a year or once in two months has increased accounts receivables and larger customer bills. It gets worse if the bills are disputed by the customers perhaps because of inaccurate readings making the whole process lengthy. Energy and water rates are continually on the rise and it is advisable for such service providers to provide bills in a timely manner and consistently. This is only possible by the use of an automatic gauge reading system suited for the utility.

There may be a utility invoicing software which will give your customers an option to pay online which is a huge advantage. The customers will have to register on an online portal where they will have to log in with the necessary information and allow them to pay their bills online.

The utility will have to analyze the customers reason for calling from the call logs in the call centers. Automated meter readings have reduced the customer calls and led to an increase in customer satisfaction.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment