Engaging the Voice of the Customer in Bill Redesign

Kris Hunter

Manager, Billing Operations

Orlando Utilities Commission

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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

• 16th largest in nation

• Generation capacity of 1,850 Megawatts

• 450 sq. miles service territory

Services Billed By OUC

As of January 2018

Fire Protection

Backflow Prevention

Devices

OUC Consumption

Online AWR Home Warranty

Winter Park Waste

Water

County Waste Water

County Oil & Grease

City Waste Water

City Solid Waste

City Reclaimed

Water

City Sewer Credit

ElectricEV

Charging

Photo

Voltaic

Solar Farm

Solar Aggregation

Domestic Water

Irrigation

Water

Portable Water

Water Sub-Metering

Retail Chilled Water

Wholesale Chilled Water

Convenient Streetlights

Conventional Streetlights

Indoor Lighting

OUCOrangeCounty

City of Orlando

WinterPark

Total

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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

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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

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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

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Initiated

7/2016

Requirements and Design

7/2016 – 9/2016

Testing

10/2016 – 2/2017

Implementation

3/2017

Initiated

7/2015

Requirements and Design

8/2015 – 4/2016

11/2016 – 3/2017

Testing

3/2017 – 7/2017

Implementation

7/2017

PSERM Bill Print Project

CC&B Bill Print Project

Level One Offered Improvements in Technology and Flexibility• Provide targeted

service-level messaging

• Enhanced and expanded graphs of historical usage

• Dynamic messaging in email, ability to communicate with customers through their channel of choice

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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

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Bill Presentment

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Bill Presentment • Based on the results and focus group feedback, the design was

selected for paper bills

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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

• Email 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

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Communication Strategy• 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• Email 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

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Connections Newsletter Article

Web Page with Instructional Videos and Interactive Bill

Bill Envelope Graphic

Communication Strategy

• Employees• Employee FYI email 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 MyNewBillOverview and FAQs were laminated and placed on a metal ring for easy reference for CSRs

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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

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Budget Billing Summary

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BEFORE AFTER

Payment Arrangement

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BEFORE

AFTER

Consolidated Billing

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BEFORELast page of bill

AFTERFirst page of bill

Targeted Service LevelMessaging –Corrected Bill

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Front of Bill – Message Center

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Orlando St. Cloud

Back of Bill – Single Premise Accounts

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BEFORE: All Accounts AFTER: Single Premise Accounts

Back of Bill – Multi-Premise Accounts

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BEFORE: All Accounts AFTER: Multi-Premise Accounts

Dynamic Messaging in Email for eBill Customers

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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

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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 system-

generated letters that have been sent to the customer

• Email a copy of a bill or letter directly from OneVIEW®

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What Were the Results?

• 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

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0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

Total Call Volume by MonthJanuary - December 2017

New CIS systemNew bill designs

0.00%

0.02%

0.04%

0.06%

0.08%

0.10%

0.12%

0.14%

0.16%

0.18%

New Bill Calls as a Percentage of Total Call VolumeMarch - December 2017

New bill designs

New CIS system

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

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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

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