CITY MANAGER- SPONSORED
UTILITIES CUSTOMER SERVICE EVALUATION
SUMMARY OF SOLUTIONS
10/4/10
On October 4, 2010, Charlotte City Council was presented with the summary findings of a Utilities Customer
Service Evaluation (UCSE) project that began last March. The final plan, due to the City Manager later this
month, will recommend and detail a 40-point effort by Utilities and its public service partners within the City
to address various and often overlapping root causes for high bill complaints and customer service issues. The
solution includes a combination of many parts. Seven projects are already complete. Sixteen more will be in
place by year’s end, another 16 will be done by July 1, 2011, and one of the largest improvement projects – the
billing cycle alignment – will occur during 2011-12. Together, these initiatives are strategically geared toward
better Utilities Customer Service performance through:
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Consistent customer-centric service philosophy, performance targets and oversight
Uniformly documented business processes - clear and consistent application
Improved training and efficient equipment
Ongoing equipment evaluation & maintenance
The 40 UCSE recommendations fall under 3 categories, and include these significant tasks:
Pre-billing
− Improved pre-billing account review and field verification processes to minimize billing errors before
they reach the customer
− Field equipment & billing system enhancements to support a faster, uniform, paperless account/billing
platform accessible by field, office & phone staff
− Billing Cycle Alignment to redistribute the monthly meter route/billing cycles workload for 250,000+
water accounts, and to help meet our 30 day billing cycle goal. This 30-day goal allows for a consistent
and reasonable window of time between a customer’s use of water, when the meter is read, and when
customer is billed for that use
Post-Billing
− Improved high bill complaint process to include more thorough field testing/verification and active
communication with customer, and reduce the number of escalated complaints
− Reasonable, simple, clear & consistently applied bill adjustment policies
Other Improvements
− Develop Customer Service Philosophy, Strategy and Performance Targets to provide clear direction
and opportunities for monitoring progress and making operational adjustments
− Continue developing staff resources, communication tools and training in phone, back-office & field
customer service
− Develop Ongoing Meter Equipment Audit & Ongoing Maintenance Program – Better track and
maintain meter equipment inventory; research industry & product development, strategically consider any
transition to future meter technologies
− Implement a Customer Payment Assistance Program to help customers who struggle to pay bills each
month and help the utility address a chronic and expensive cycle of cut-offs/cut-ons/delinquency field
work
* The ongoing Utilities Rate Study is a parallel project that will complement UCSE with recommendations on
related service matters including deposits, delinquency fees, etc. Any change in rate & fee methodology will
go before Council and is expected to be in place by February 2011 (before budget season begins next spring).
Follow Updates on Utilities Customer Service Improvements & the Rate Study at www.cmutilities.com CITY MANAGER- SPONSORED
UTILITIES CUSTOMER SERVICE EVALUATION
SUMMARY OF SOLUTIONS
10/4/10
What were the results of the meter equipment audit?
Based on this summer’s independent field review of more than 9,000 water meter accounts (a crossrepresentation of 3.5% of the system), the water meter equipment provided accurate bills in more
than 99 percent of the locations audited.
However, nearly 22 percent of the locations we encountered had some form of maintenance
problem that needed attention. These problems included meter boxes that were broken or buried,
filled with water or could not be found.
As a result:
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Utilities has begun an ongoing audit and enhanced field maintenance program to prevent the
likelihood of future billing and service problems caused by moisture, mud, covered boxes,
damaged wires, etc.
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Most of the 40 other customer service improvements address changes in the current meter
reading, pre-billing verification and communication, billing and post-billing high bill
complaint investigation processes.
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We will enhance some field equipment and software to make meter reading and billing
processes more consistent and streamlined.
By The Numbers •
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9,011 meters audited
58 locations with meter equipment that led to a billing error detection
Ten of the 58 accounts received a monetary adjustment.
Follow Updates on Utilities Customer Service Improvements & the Rate Study at www.cmutilities.com