When the post office began shredding water bills sent by the City of Marion, major issues ensued. Without the physical post card bill to read, customers weren’t making payments and the water billing system was failing.
The Challenge
The City of Marion had an urgent need to solve water bill delivery issues
The City of Marion used the same water billing system for 30 years. They printed bills on small postcards and sent them through the postal service. Something changed with the postal service and bills weren’t being delivered. They were either lost or being shredded and Finance Director Dawn Penland didn’t understand why bills weren’t reaching the customers.
The post office was losing or tearing up the water bill postcards we’d used for 30 years. We simply couldn’t handle that anymore.
Dawn Penland, Finance Director
- Lost and Destroyed Bills
The post office issue was difficult to understand and had no clear resolution for the City of Marion. - Angry Customers
Customer backlash from billing issues was a serious problem. The phones were ringing with frustrated customer calls. - Internal Time Requirements
Water personnel were spending time printing and delivering bills while they had other pressing tasks.
The Solution
City of Marion finds PMSI through a referral
In her search for solutions, Dawn Penland was referred to PMSI from another set of finance directors who had encountered similar delivery issues. PMSI had resolved their problems and the City of Marion hoped for similiar results. She engaged PMSI to take over the printing and distribution of water bills for the city. She communicated with Mike Feeley, largely through email. Mike explained the issues, solutions and worked through onboarding very quickly.
- Identify USPS Issues
PMSI analyzed the situation, identified the problems and communicated everything to the City of Marion. - Onboard with PMSI
Dawn Penland worked with Mike Feeley at PMSI to shift printing and distribution of water bills. - Monitor Performance
Bills resumed delivery and the problems were resolved. PMSI continues delivering every single month.
Results
City of Marion water bills resume delivery
After shifting water bill printing and distribution to PMSI, all lost and destroyed postcard issues have been resolved. Customers are receiving their bills on time, every month since the change. The water utility staff is now saving time on the printing and post office delivery and customers are happy with the consistent billing.
It made a lot of our customers happy. They were receiving their bills again, and the water utility personnel were thrilled that they no longer had to print and deliver all of these bills.
