A Different Kind Of Pressure – How One Organization Responded To An Imposed Billing And Customer Service Change

For many years, the US Marine Corps has utilized a concept known as a “strategic corporal”, which is a small unit leader who not only knows how to win the fight, but also how to win the peace as well. Without understanding the vital need to interact in a positive way with the local populace, it is easy to “win the battle and lose the war”. In the utilities industry, we need “strategic supervisors” to do much the same thing. A “strategic supervisor” is one who not only has the technical skills to fix a problem in the field (like water line break), but is also skilled at engaging with customers in a positive and productive way that enhances our reputation as a company. If not trained properly to accomplish both missions, supervisors at our utilities can win the battle against a line break and lose the war of public opinion in the eyes of the customers. This paper describes how it is done at Daphne Utilities to great success.This presentation will describe, in detail, the steps taken by one Virginia wastewater authority to respond to an unexpected notification from its billing and customer service provider that it would no longer provide those services. These steps included:• Assessing existing business processes and developing requirements for the third-party vendor and software solution•Developing the solution recommendation and implementation roadmap•Soliciting proposals and selecting the third-party provider•Overseeing the solution implementation•Developing and implementing a customer outreach strategyThe authority had less than a year to find another provider and implement a new solution, as this change was not anticipated nor was it identified in any strategic plan. However, it became the most important tactical issue that the authority had to resolve.As a result of careful planning and strategic thinking, the wastewater authority leveraged the challenging situation to not only procure a highly qualified third-party vendor to provide billing and customer care services so that its customers would experience a smooth transition, but to advance and incorporate best practices, optimize business processes across all functions of the enterprise, develop an Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP) implementation roadmap, and provide robust tools for decision making to meet its current and future customer service and business goals.A third-party provider of billing and customer care services was selected and the billing and customer care solution has been implemented, with “go-live” occurring on October 1, 2012. A new Customer Service Manager was hired in August 2012 to oversee the development and continued modification of day-to-day business practices, policies, and procedures, and to best confront and resolve new customer and business challenges as they arise. The authority continues to assess its long-term strategy with respect to billing and customer care services.