One thing I like best about attending an EUCI conference is the sharing of information on a smaller, more personal scale. I return home to reflect on the experiences & pain points of the individual utilities to form a conclusion on the mutual needs of the industry.

My favorite topics and best practices for 2019 Billing & Payment Customer Engagement:

• Offer as many flexible payment options and pay channels as possible
• Self-service, including chatbots and smart audio, equals a reduction in call handling times
• Tie the generational piece of your Persona Mapping into your Customer Journey Mapping
• AI is changing who is hired as an engaged, educated population will have high tech expectations

Our CEO, Jay Malin, sat on the panel – Vision of the Future – and I asked for his takeaways from the discussion as well:  (1) leverage text and new social channels to facilitate text to pay; (2) create a round-trip payment process by including the bill in the notification and allowing customers to instantly pay by access their wallet on the mobile phone; (3) embed secure bill and wallet links into messages using one-time, shortened, expiring web links; (4) pre-pay with its notifications offers great promise in enhancing customer energy usage behaviors and providing a quick path to onboard disconnected customers.

I look forward to our next EUCI event!

Carrie