53% of Utilities Cited High Arrearages and Collections as Their Greatest Challenge in the Area of Billing; High Bill Alerts Can Help

By Casey Collins, Senior Research Analyst

With 53% of utilities citing “High arrearages and collections” as their greatest challenge in billing, high bill alerts are a key tool to help address this issue. 72% of residential customers in Chartwell’s recent Consumer Survey expressed interest in receiving high bill alerts…especially via text; however, only 57% of utilities are currently offering high bill alerts to customers.

Implementing high bill alerts provides significant benefits to both the customer and the utility. This can be a key strategy in helping customers manage late payments and ultimately collections by helping customers incorporate energy costs into their monthly budgets.

Providing alerts also fosters trust and transparency. Helping customers manage costs strengthens relationships and reduces complaints about billing surprises. On the utility side, offering high bill alert enrollment provides CSRs a tool to offer customers, and can ultimately help decrease call volume to the contact center. Additionally, high bill alerts encourage customers to adopt energy efficiency habits to help them learn to control usage and costs in the long term.

Please contact Tim Herrick to learn more about the Billing and Payment Leadership Council.​