Utility Overview
The City of Billings, MT is the largest city in the state of Montana Billings provides reliable and safe water distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, and garbage collection to its population of 110,000 people. Billings is located in the fertile valley of the Yellowstone River and is surrounded by scenic mountain ranges. Billings partnered with VertexOne WaterSmart™ (now VXsmart) and InvoiceCloud to achieve a seamless customer experience and significant improvements in operational efficiency.
The Challenge
Customer expectations have continued to evolve over the years, and as a progressive utility, Billings was determined to keep pace and deliver a high-quality customer experience to the community. As part of this dedication, Billings implemented a first attempt at an online payment platform. While this solution checked the box, it was severely limited in its functionality. Not only was the information presented within the platform focused solely on bills, the options for online bill-pay were low level and on top of it all, the platform was cumbersome and challenging to use.
Billings is not unique in serving a wide range of customers: some more digital or tech savvy and others expecting more traditional solutions. Unfortunately, across-the-board customers were displeased with the existing experience. Customers need an easy way to pay their utility bills online, just like they have been paying bills for phone, cable, and other services for years. Given that the number one driver for inbound customer calls and issues continues to center around bills and payment concerns, Billings desired a platform with self-service solutions to help resolve these common customer issues online.
The City of Billings team clearly identified goals for their investment:
- Increase adoption of digital engagement and payment channels
- Reduce the number of payment-related issues and complaints
- Improve operational efficiency and customer service productivity
The Solution
The VertexOne's customer engagement and data analytics platform offers a powerful solution to Billings. The Customer Self-Service Portal, available to all customers through a mobile and web application interface, provides a single place for customers to see consumption, check and resolve leaks, receive targeted messages, and analyze their current and historical bills.
VertexOne’s re-named product portfolio echoes the company’s long-standing mission to enhance the customer experience. Therefore, products mentioned in this resource may not reflect our current portfolio names. Click the link to learn more about our product renaming and restructure.
