Engaging the Voice of the Customer in Bill Redesign. Kris Hunter Manager, Billing Operations Orlando Utilities Commission

Transcription

1 Engaging the Voice of the Customer in Bill Redesign Kris Hunter Manager, Billing Operations Orlando Utilities Commission 1

2 ABOUTOUC Formed in 1923 Serving Orange and Osceola counties Electric, Water, and Chilled Water services 400,000 total meters 155,000 water meters 255,000 electric meters Second largest municipal utility in Florida 16 th largest in nation Generation capacity of 1,850 Megawatts 450 sq. miles service territory 2

3 Wholesale Chilled Water Retail Chilled Water Convenient Streetlights Conventional Streetlights Indoor Lighting Fire Protection Backflow Prevention Devices Services Billed By OUC As of January 2018 OUC Consumption Online AWR Home Warranty County Waste Water County Oil & Grease Water Sub- Metering Portable Water Irrigation Water Domestic Water OUC Orange County City of Orlando Winter Park Total City Sewer Credit City Waste Water City Solid Waste City Reclaimed Water Solar Aggregation Solar Farm Photo Voltaic EV Charging Electric Winter Park Waste Water

4 Why Redesign the Bill? Former bill designs had been the same for 15 years Customers drove the direction of the redesign Focus groups indicated desire for More white space Consistency in look and feel (fonts, type size, bill layout) More information about how their bill is calculated More information about their usage Focus groups also identified needs related to specific programs Budget Billing Payment Arrangements Consolidated Billing 4

5 Bill Redesign Project Goals Create a more customer-friendly bill design Improve customer experience Consistent designs for all types of bills Support OUC branding Provide flexibility in messaging and communication Improve record retention Consolidate letters and collection notices with a single vendor 5

6 Bill Print Redesign Project Timeline & Execution Original vision: implement CC&B and new bill designs simultaneously CC&B was a complex project with an extended timeline Decision made to expedite bill print redesign from existing system PSERM Bill Print Project Initiated 7/2016 Requirements and Design 7/2016 9/2016 Testing 10/2016 2/2017 Implementation 3/2017 CC&B Bill Print Project Initiated Requirements and Design Testing Implementation 7/2015 8/2015 4/2016 3/2017 7/2017 7/ /2016 3/2017 6

7 Level One Offered Improvements in Technology and Flexibility Provide targeted service-level messaging Enhanced and expanded graphs of historical usage Dynamic messaging in , ability to communicate with customers through their channel of choice 7

8 How We Redesigned the Bill Focus groups and surveys were used to show two potential new design options for the OUC bill and asked for feedback regarding clarity, content and preference Paper bill customers were shown paper bill options and paperless customers were shown e-bill options 8

9 Bill Presentment 9

10 Bill Presentment Based on the results and focus group feedback, the design was selected for paper bills 10

11 Communication Strategy Communications Timeline January 2017 March 2017 Commercial Customers In-person meetings with key accounts Informational packet created and provided to key accounts Letters sent to key accounts prepared for Key Account Representatives to send to key accounts Letters to all Commercial customers With the letter, they received an insert communication on Understanding Your New Bill 11

12 Communication Strategy Connections Newsletter Article Residential & Small Commercial Customers Understanding Your New Bill inserts Connections newsletter articles Coming Soon message How to Read Your New Bill message Message on OUC.com Message on Bill Envelope to e-bill customers about new bill features with links to Understanding Your New Bill and OUC.com Web Homepage banner Landing page Met the needs of the Commercial and Residential customers Included new bill and old bill for comparison Interactive bill Instructional videos: English and Spanish Social Media Message for Facebook and Twitter Web Page with Instructional Videos and Interactive Bill Bill Envelope Graphic 12

13 Communication Strategy Employees Employee FYI about new bills being sent to customers with examples Training program developed and implemented for Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) Prints of Understanding Your New Bill, MyOUC Changes, OUC.com MyNewBill Overview and FAQs were laminated and placed on a metal ring for easy reference for CSRs 13

14 Testing Strategy Extensive testing for initial rollout: October 2016 February 2017 About 650 test scenarios were executed during User Acceptance Testing Two hands-on testing and review sessions were held Personnel from across OUC reviewed bills to gain familiarity with the new bill designs and to provide feedback Drafts of actual bills for Key Accounts were provided ahead of time so OUC personnel could compare the existing bill with the new bill 14

15 Budget Billing Summary BEFORE AFTER 15

16 Payment Arrangement BEFORE AFTER 16

17 Consolidated Billing BEFORE Last page of bill AFTER First page of bill 17

18 Targeted Service Level Messaging Corrected Bill 18

19 Front of Bill Message Center Orlando St. Cloud 19

20 Back of Bill Single Premise Accounts BEFORE: All Accounts AFTER: Single Premise Accounts 20

21 Back of Bill Multi-Premise Accounts BEFORE: All Accounts AFTER: Multi-Premise Accounts 21

22 Dynamic Messaging in for ebill Customers 22

23 OneVIEW Suite Enhanced validation and bill review capability Validate the math on the bill (i.e., crossfoot validation logic) High bill thresholds for Residential and Commercial bills Usage validations User intercept bills Enhanced quality assurance capability for testing new changes Enhanced security controls with configurable access levels and permissions 23

24 OneVIEW Suite Easy to use interface for OUC personnel with the capability to Retrieve bill and letter images based on different criteria View historical bill images View the PDF image of a customer s bill and inserts View the PDF image of systemgenerated letters that have been sent to the customer a copy of a bill or letter directly from OneVIEW 24

25 What Were the Results? Total Call Volume by Month January - December 2017 Minimal change in total call volume following the implementation of the new bill designs in March 2017 Anticipated an increase in customer calls that did not materialize Negligible number of calls specifically related to the new bill designs Modest uptick in this call type upon implementation of new CIS system in July 2017 but the volume stabilized and returned to pre-implementation rate 120, ,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20, % 0.16% 0.14% 0.12% 0.10% 0.08% 0.06% 0.04% 0.02% 0.00% 0 New bill designs New CIS system New Bill Calls as a Percentage of Total Call Volume March - December 2017 New bill designs New CIS system 25

26 Lessons Learned Deciding to go with new designs in existing system created resource contention Some work planned for July 2017 was pulled forward to March 2017 Conversion of historical bill images Collection letters Original designs produced for CC&B had to be revisited to ensure the data from the current system would support them 26

27 Lessons Learned Implementing the new designs ahead of CIS conversion ultimately benefited OUC and its customers Communication to customers done ahead of CIS conversion Training on new designs held outside of training for new CIS system Better managed incremental change both internal and external Need to sell new designs and vision internally to obtain buy-in from stakeholders across the organization Asking our customers what they wanted, listening to their feedback, and designing based on their needs led to a successful rollout and a positive response to the new designs 27