Case Study: Cedar Park
Population:
- Approximately 61,200
- Located 16 miles southeast of Austin
- 6,500 online payments received each month
- Using Utility Billing Online Payments since 2007
Challenge:
- Significant population increase resulted in long lines, increased wait times and expanded workloads for utility billing department staff.
Solution:
- Tyler’s Incode Utility Billing Online Payment solutions
Results:
- Customer has ability to make payments 24/7
- Less foot traffic and shorter wait times for customers
- Reduced manual payment processes by 44 percent
- Significant time savings for utility staff
The City of Cedar Park, Texas, has grown by more than 400 percent in the last decade, and is now ranked by the US Census Bureau as the fourth fastest-growing city in the country. The rapid increase in population has contributed to the city’s growing utility accounts, which has resulted in an expanded workload for Cedar Park employees. With limited resources at their disposal, the Austin suburb turned to their partnership with Tyler Technologies to help them manage the increased workload without adding staff.
Enhanced Customer Service
Cedar Park is located approximately 16 miles from the city of Austin. As a major suburb of the 4th-largest city in Texas, significant growth was inevitable. What wasn’t expected was the toll an increased population would have on Cedar Park’s utility billing staff.
Long lines and even longer wait times were becoming all too familiar in the now-bustling city’s utility billing department. At that time, the only way for citizens to pay their utilities was via mail or to physically go to the office. When customers chose the latter, the workload became almost too much for the Cedar Park staff to handle.
By utilizing Tyler’s Incode® Utility Billing Online Payment solution, Cedar Park was able to provide customers that would rather pay online a convenient and quick way to make a payment, 24/7. As a result, the long lines decreased to a manageable level and allowed Cedar Park staff to provide better customer service.
Nanette McCartan, the utility billing manager for Cedar Park, described the impact Tyler’s Incode Utility Billing Online software has had on her office.
It shortens our lines in the office so that we can serve the customers who have questions faster,” she said. “With shorter lines, not only do we get to the customer faster, but we can also give them better customer service by not rushing their visit. We want to be able to give the customers that come up to the window our attention instead of worrying about the growing line of people waiting to make a payment.
Nanette McCartan
Utility Billing Manager
Comparison of Cedar Park Utility Billing Payment Methods
Cedar Park citizens were also pleased to discover just how much easier online payments were on their busy schedules. Like most cities, Cedar Park’s utility billing office is open during normal business hours – which can be a challenge to citizens that work during the same schedule. Utility Billing Online is especially useful for citizens that are unable to make it to the office during normal business hours and don’t have envelopes and stamps readily available.
With online payments, citizens can easily access the Cedar Park website at any time and pay their bills when it’s most convenient for them. Through the use of Utility Billing Online, Cedar Park has been able to reduce their manual payment processes by 44 percent.
Extension of the City Website
To make matters even more convenient, the online payment website offers extensive customization, which Cedar Park has taken advantage of. By adding their city logo to the page, the online payment website maintains the same “feel” as their city website. Now when Cedar Park citizens access the city website and go to the payment page, they feel as if they’ve never left the original city website. It all adds up to a significantly streamlined process, for Cedar Park staff and citizens.
Website Maintenance
McCartan said she enjoyed how maintenance is performed in the middle of the night and how her city is always notified prior to any work. Cedar Park employees don’t have to worry or “babysit” the online payment website. It’s so efficient that McCartan readily recommends Utility Billing Online to other cities.
“I have received phone calls through the years from other cities inquiring if we like the online payment solution and I always recommend it to everyone,” she said.