Administrative Brief
Volume 32, No. 24
August 5, 2010
ADMINISTRATIVE BRIEF FROM ROD FRANZ
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
Over the last few years, the Water Customer Accounting Division began implementing a number
of improvements intended to provide convenience for customers as well as reducing the amount
of time and resources required of staff.
In December 2007, we implemented an interactive voice response system, which we christened
“$WaterLine$”, in a fit of cuteness.$WaterLine$ empowers customers to retrieve account
balances and limited information about recent payments and billings, make payments to their
account over the telephone, and request and receive payment extensions. We also use the
outbound calling features that provides a final notice to customers when their service is about to
be disconnected.
In February 2010, the “Click2Gov” (C2G) internet payment system was launched. This system
allows customers to pay their bills, as well as access more detailed billing history, and charts
and graphs showing consumption history. The extended service of paperless billing began in
May, giving our customers the option to choose this feature.Along with the paperless billing,
additional features of acti vating, terminating, and changing names on accounts were
implemented.
The effects of the improvements have been quite dramatic. There has been a very noticeable
reduction in the number of manually handled phone calls into t he office. These calls have
dropped from approximately 45,000 to 30,000 calls per year. However, the number of total calls
into the system increased to 62,000, with t he difference being handled by the automated
system. Other than transfers to the staff, the system handles about 70,000 “transactions” per
year. The bulk of these are account inquiries (35,500), automated payments (19,000), and
payment arrangements (7,400).The delinquency module makes about 10,000 outbound calls
per year, resulting in the last minute collection from 7,000 customers. These customers have
avoided the embarrassment, inconvenience and cost associated with loss of service, and City
staff has avoided the unpleasant task of disconnecting service.
Payment processing has also been significant ly affected. The table below shows the
annualized payment volumes by type of payment for 2007 and 2010.
Payment Type 2007 2010 Difference
City Building Drop 46,475 39,182(7,293)
Remote Drops 11,043 9,514(1,529)
Counter Payments 35,452 32,681(2,772)
Mail 100,457 87,803(12,654)
Bank Drafts 31,572 31,942 370
$WaterLine$ 0 19,096 19,096
C2G 0 4,783 4,783
Total 225,000 225,000
Commission Information Memorandum
Page 2
By the end of July, there have been a total of 151 customers signed up for e-bill notification and
continuing to increase at nearly 40% per month. With each e-bill there is an immediate savings
on postage and supplies. Since the implementation of the service order system in mid-May, the
division has received 67 requests (start, stop, transfer) via that method. The online service
orders probably do not save the City significant time; however, it is intended primarily as a
convenience for the customers. As a point of reference, we process about 1,000 service orders
of this type per month.
Being a “numbers” guy, it’s kind of interesting to try to quantify what all this means. In terms of
the customer, it means saving 11,594 trips to City Hall (or a drop box) and 12,654 pieces of
mail. Assuming a round trip of 15 minutes and 4 miles, this is about 50,000 miles saved and at
the IRS rate of $.50 per mile, that is $25,000. About $7,000 of that is direct fuel expense
avoided. It also saves more than 3,000 hour s of travel time, and avoids about $5,585 in
Total “value” to the customer, counting travel time, for one year is thus
postage expense.
about $75,585.
Cash savings (fuel and postage only) is about $11,585 for one year. This
analysis includes only the effects of the payments system, and does not consider the “value” of
the balance inquiry’s, online service orders, delinquency notifications, e-bill notifications, etc.
Of course, the City and Water Customer Accounting staff realizes some direct benefits also.
With the reduced telephone volume, the working environment in the office has improved
noticeably, as has staff morale. Each payment made on the automated system saves time and
reduces exposure to loss. Elimination of the “in-person” collections program has reduced staff
risk, risk of fiduciary loss, and perhaps eliminated the need to request an additional position.
Workload in the office decreased sufficiently so that we were able to avoid re-filling a position.
MONDAY’S MEETING
Enclosed are other items on the agenda. If any Commissioner has questions or cannot attend
the meeting, please contact me.
Jason A. Gage
City Manager