Establishing A Payment Plan Program for Our Customers

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Beginning March 2020, the Customer Operations group used strategic planning methods to tackle changes to our normal business practices during the COVID-19 pandemic that are still in place today. Many pre-pandemic business practices needed to be revamped to accommodate the new needs of our employees and customers. Drastic changes were made to existing business practices related to collections on past due accounts. During the pandemic, customer past due balances grew due to a state enacted disconnection moratorium. When the moratorium ended, funds from Utility Assistance Program and ARPA federal programs were applied to past due accounts, according to program guidelines. Once federal assistance ended, customers were made aware collections would resume on past due balances. With our customers in mind and the high past due balances, we proposed the concept of payment plans for customers unable to pay their bills during the pandemic. Strategic planning means having a strategic perspective for one’s business, a vision for the future, which will give the organization a competitive advantage and the right tools to take necessary actions to always keep the organization successful with the customers in mind. Our strategic plan for proposing the payment plan for our customers was to ensure our customers’ services were not interrupted.