Making Bills Beautiful

Customizing Your Utility Bills

Background

WHG’s client runs a small utility providing water and sewer services to approximately 1,500 customers. During a transition to in-house billing, the township changed from a postcard bill to a full-page bill format.

Pain Point

The standard format provided by the software provider is generic and does not provide a clear understanding of the customer’s bill. The rate and billing structure did not fit well with the generic format. Due to the complicated and confusing format, the staff frequently received calls from customers attempting to understand their utility bills.

The Woodhill Group Solution

The Woodhill Group team customized a report template specific to the client’s needs, providing clear usage information, usage history, billed charges, payments, penalties, interest, and amount due. The client can customize the back of the utility bill, providing additional information to the customer at little additional cost.

The report template can be used for both standard billing cycles and on-demand printing of prior bills and can be emailed directly from the billing program.

Resulting Benefits

While no one likes to pay their water bill, having a bill that provides clear and useful information to the customer can provide real benefits to the township and its customers. By reducing questions, the client receives fewer calls questioning charges.

Key Benefits:

• Charges clearly labeled and totaled

• Clear meter read and usage information

• Multiple meters easily identified

• Usage history on every bill

• Reduced customer confusion

• Back of bill used to provide information to customers about township services like ACH

• Tear-off payment stub for mailing payments

Before

After