Utility Overview
Bullhead City is located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. Boasting more than 300 sunny days a year, Bullhead City has also been referred to as Arizona’s West Coast because the City is located on the east bank of the Colorado River near the juncture of Arizona, California and Nevada. Following a $130 million bond approval, Bullhead City took over water and wastewater services for 21,000+ customers.
Bullhead City turned to VertexOne for a suite of modern solutions allowing the City to bring their operational systems up-to-date and increase customer satisfaction while minimizing service interruptions.
The Challenge
Utilities require their Customer Information System (CIS) to power a reliable meter-to-cash process in an adaptive, user-centric setup. Given the City's unique situation, selecting a CIS with a frictionless transition for customers and minimally burdensome evolution for City staff was critical. Prior to the transition, staff had already identified a weakness of their system, with users no longer able to make payments via a login-free platform. This presented an opportunity to the City to improve the power of their CIS.
Preparing, printing, and shipping bills in-house wastes significant time that could be spent elsewhere. The City operates on a 5-cycle, monthly cadence; requiring one City employee to be 'out-of-office' one-to-two days each week to operate the bill printing and stuffing machines. Consistently operating at reduced staffing levels amplifies the strain of handling inbound customer calls, the primary focus of City customer service staff. The City also faced limitations for outbound messaging, only allowed one promotional announcement to be printed on the back of each bill.
Any time a utility updates their systems they must abide by a strict timeline. Given their unique legal proceeding, the City was operating with clear deadlines. Because of these pre-set timelines, the City needed to make software and technology solution decisions quickly and efficiently in order to assure there was zero pause in service.
The Products
Following extensive review, the City chose to partner with VertexOne and implement several solutions including:
- VXcis (formerly VertexOne CIS Essentials™) to modernize their meter-to-cash process offering an efficient interface for City staff
- VXengage (formerlyVertexOne Customer Advantage™) which gives secure online self-service end-user options
- VXcommunicate (formerly VertexOne Communication Advantage™) to manage content creation and customer communication through a multi-channel approach
- VXrepository (formerly VertexOne Document Advantage™) to save, view, and print important customer-related documents
- VXsmart (formerly VertexOne WaterSmart™) for automated data analytics and water usage insights
- VXfieldwork (formerly VertexOne Field Work™) to optimize field service teams and improve collaboration with customer service and customers
- VXprint and VXpay (formerly VertexOne Bill Print + Payment™) which serves as a single platform for bill processing and alleviates the City of all burden
Benefits to Bullhead City
- Increased staff availability for customer service needs and projects
- Measurable performance improvements and lower cost-to-serve through digital, automated customer communications
- Modernized CIS with managed services and technological currency
- Data analytics platform with deep insights and improved issue resolution
Customer Benefits
- Multiple self-service options for electronic bill print, presentment, and payment
- Option for 24-hour access to account with multiple ways to pay
- Access to online platform with usage reports, bill predictions, and targeted utility communications
- Bill explanation with autonomy to customer through self-help resolutions for common concerns
Looking Ahead
The City feels confident about their next phase of enhanced customer engagement programs,improved staff efficiency, and the final go-live of their VertexOne solution suite. In fact, they are "creating a plan that is a little more forward thinking", says Robert Drexler. The City is "getting enough things done ahead of time" and "finding the things we never had time to implement previously because we were doing it all" continued Drexler.
The City plans to implement new programs, like a modern, up-to-date lock box system, in the upcoming months. Because of the "professional manner and organizational services," Drexler is no longer "getting pulled in a lot of directions." Instead, he is able to use VertexOne as an extension of his team to complete all critical tasks on-time and on-budget.
VertexOne’s re-named product portfolio echoes the company’s long-standing mission to enhance the customer experience. Therefore, products mentioned in this webinar may not reflect our current portfolio names. Click the link to learn more about our product renaming and restructure.
