Driving Adoption of Modern Utility Payment Options
Industry: Municipal
Location: Antioch, California
Number of Employees: 377
Population: 117,600
Tyler Client Since: 2003
Tyler Solutions Used: ERP Pro, Enterprise Permitting & Licensing, Content Manager, Payments
Challenges
Located in the Bay Area, California’s technology hub, the city of Antioch strives to keep up with the region’s culture by offering modern ways for its community to access government services. “Instead of doing things the old way, like processing checks manually or having customers come into our office, I want to use technology and keep the city of Antioch moving forward,” said Rashila Chaudhary, the city’s finance services supervisor.
For the finance team, water service is just one of the city’s many offerings that keep the office buzzing. And as Antioch rapidly grows, they need an efficient way for citizens to access their water usage information and pay their water bills. “We’re building homes like crazy in Antioch,” said Fran Viart, accounting technician for the city. “We need to do everything we can to gear people toward using the technology that’s available to them.” The office also handles building permit customers, code enforcement, business license agreements, and more. “We need time to talk to those customers instead of taking calls from people who want to pay their water bill,” said Viart.
Aligned with their modernization goals, the city implemented Tyler Technologies’ ERP Pro Utility Billing to give citizens new payment options and empower them to access their information independently. But the finance team knew simply offering their customers a new tool wouldn’t be enough to help them keep up with the needs of their growing population. To raise awareness and get as many citizens using Utility Billing’s features as possible, the city of Antioch partnered with Tyler on an adoption campaign.
Solution
There are approximately 34,000 utility accounts in Antioch. Before the adoption campaign, about half of those took advantage of Tyler’s Utility Billing options, such as online payments through Utility Access and phone payments through Interactive Voice Response (IVR). At the campaign’s start, the city also started to offer Text-to-Pay, a convenient payment option that allows customers to pay their bills by sending a short reply to an automated text message.
During the adoption campaign, the city took every opportunity to get the word out about all these payment options, including direct mail, flyers in their lobby, and posting information on their website. “We do major mailouts through our water bills. That’s one of the best ways to reach people,” said Chaudhary. Customers are even reminded about the other payment options when they call or visit the office. “When customers call the IVR number, they can choose to sign up for Text-to-Pay. When people come in to pay their monthly bills, our customer service representatives advise them about that option. We are constantly pushing it and reminding our customers about Text-to-Pay,” she said.
By using multiple tactics, Antioch can reach customers where they’re already looking for information. “That information is available everywhere to help customers learn about these new payment options. I think when we talk about those options over and over, customers will listen,” Chaudhary said. As the city’s customers discover the convenience of these payment options, they continue using them — and even tell their neighbors to try them too — amplifying the adoption campaign’s impact.
Results
Only a few months after launching the adoption campaign, the city of Antioch saw a 10% increase in customers using self-service payment options. A large portion of that increase is attributed to new Text-to-Pay users, demonstrating the benefit of that payment method for citizens. Offering Text-to-Pay has helped customers keep up with their water bills, reducing monthly average shutoffs from 25-30 down to 10-15. While that decrease is important for customers and city revenue, it also impacts the morale of the city’s customer-facing personnel. “I don’t feel good about turning off people’s water, so cutting those shutoffs in half really does make a difference for me,” said Damien Aguirre, lead customer service representative at the Antioch city office. “We’re helping our customers by giving them all these tools, it’s just up to them to use them.”
Processing checks manually costs a city money, and we’re trying to reduce costs for the city. The more people signing up for Text-to-Pay, the better — both for the customers and for us.
Rashila Chaudhary
Finance Services Supervisor
Self-service payment methods are also easier, faster, and more secure for customers. “Our customers don’t always have time to sit on the automated line and wait for the prompts and queues, so Text-to-Pay is easier for them,” said Aguirre. And while the office doesn’t save payment information for customers who call to pay their bills, card information can be saved securely through IVR or Text-to-Pay. “After they set it up the first time, they don’t have to enter their information again. A lot of people like that they don’t have to give us their credit card information verbally over the phone every time they call,” said Viart.
The increased adoption of Text-to-Pay and IVR gives the city office more time to serve other customers, and taking fewer check payments impacts the city’s revenue. “Processing checks manually costs a city money, and we’re trying to reduce costs for the city. The more people signing up for Text-to-Pay, the better — both for the customers and for us,” said Chaudhary. “We do everything we can to collect revenue for the city, and we’re using everything available from Tyler Technologies to help us get those funds,” she said. Chaudhary looks forward to continuing to modernize and get Antioch’s customers on board. “Offering these options is so helpful and so much more advanced. I love moving forward — that’s why I love coming to the office every day.”