Monday, September 21, 2015

Adoption Of Utility Bill Software

By Daphne Bowen


All the public utilities share the same objectives which are provision of clean water and energy to the public. Though these services are basic they also remit some revenue which must be accounted for. Like any other business, customer satisfaction is a priority. In modern day the manual systems are being replaced rapidly by automated systems which can read the meters remotely. These automatic systems for reading the meters are preferred to the manual systems because of the risks involved in reading the meters in residential homes where the residents may be hostile. The employees of the company sometimes have to travel through harsh landscape to reach the locations of the households. Utility bill software can be used in big and small cities.

One of the benefits of adopting an automated system is the improvement in the management of customer accounts. By the push of a button, the company personnel can track the usage of a product or service and even view the history of a customer. It is easier to manage the consumers in that, those who are having debts can be fined and penalties can be charged automatically. Besides, alerts and notices can be sent to the consumers through their emails and therefore reduce the customer response times.

Installing a utility bill program ensures that the customers receive a detailed statement showing their actual usage and the rates used to charge them. This has significantly reduced the amount of complaints lodged by the customers as a result of inaccurate readings if the meters were read manually.

Companies which have adopted this system are much more efficient in their bills distribution. These companies are able to have electronic billing whereby the bills are sent to the consumers through their emails. Postage costs that used to be incurred before to send bills via post have been eliminated.

Automated billing system has made handling of meter changes manageable by the utility companies. Some of the customers may change their residential households from time to time thereby prompting the change in meter numbers. Using an automated system allows the utility company to integrate the new and old meter bills into one bill.

An automated system is perfect for summary billing of an account. In the case where a single user is in charge of several other accounts the bills of those accounts can be merged into one. This improves the efficiency in payments. In most cases, installation of an automated system may not require heavy investment in hardware. The software can be installed into the existing hardware in the company therefore no additional costs.

Companies which have installed automated billing systems have reaped the benefits of reduced negative lawsuits. Due to the elimination of manual meter reading in their firms, the number of injuries and accidents reported by their employees reduce significantly. Even the lawsuits from hostile home owners who deter entry into their homes and term it trespass are avoided.

It is clear that adoption of a utility billing software can benefit the firm and the consumers. Consumers benefit from timely services and constant access to their accounts while the company benefits from reduced operation costs.




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