Saturday, 19 September 2015

Features Of Utility Bill Software

By Daphne Bowen


Utility bills are the amounts spent by the public on the basic products and services which include water, natural gas and electricity. The amounts to be paid vary largely with the usage of some consumers, the higher the usage of such products and services the higher the fees to be charged. However, due to the sensitivity of such services being offered and their necessity to human life, most of these products are regulated by the national governments. Utility bill software is used by companies which provide utilities to help in the management of their customer and to charge them fees for usage of their products. Automating the systems of operations has led to higher efficiencies and significant reduction in the costs incurred.

A feature of such a system is that it is possible to establish an audit trail that shows the movement of funds and payments into the company. Corruption cases have been reduced due to this and accounts that are in debt can be easily identified. Another feature is the possibility of communicating directly to the consumers through emails. Consumers are alerted and given notices on payment dates and other important information.

Installing a utility bill program ensures that the customers receive a detailed statement showing their actual usage and the rates used to charge them. This has significantly reduced the amount of complaints lodged by the customers as a result of inaccurate readings if the meters were read manually.

Automated billing systems provide the customer with online portals. Through these portals, the customers are able to easily find information they are looking for. Therefore, the calls made to the call centers of the companies reduce significantly. This means increased customer satisfaction.

Automated systems have led to the automation of tasks that are done repeatedly. This has led to less demand for labor and hence more savings for the companies. Employees are left with fewer tasks which they can put more effort into. In addition, data entry errors which are associate with humans are minimized.

Customer management is an important part of a business. Employing an automated system in a utility company ensures that the customer complaints and issues concerning provision are solved. The online portals provided are able to provide the necessary information like payment options and account numbers. Therefore, the volume of calls made to the service centers of the company reduces leading to a improvement in the satisfaction of the customer.

Companies which have installed automated billing systems have reaped the benefits of reduced negative lawsuits. Due to the elimination of manual meter reading in their firms, the number of injuries and accidents reported by their employees reduce significantly. Even the lawsuits from hostile home owners who deter entry into their homes and term it trespass are avoided.

Automatic meter readers are justified because of location of some of the meters. Some manual meters are located in dangerous areas which is an increased risk to the employees of that company. Other areas are even hard to access located in harsh terrains. This increases the cost to the company and even consumes more time in reading of those meters.




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