Assistance Programs. Water Research Foundation August 6, John Cromwell. Washington, DC. Stratus Consulting Inc.

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1 Best Practice in Customer Payment Assistance Programs Water Research Foundation August 6, 2009 John Cromwell Washington, DC

2 First, 3 poll questions for utility participants to compare to AWWA 2004 survey results. Table 1. About how many residential accounts does your water utility serve and bill? a) % b) 1-1, % c) 1,001-3, % d) 3,301-33,000 33, % e) 33, , % f) 150, , % g) More than 500, % 0.00% h) Don t know % Total responses 338 2

3 First, 3 poll questions for utility participants to compare to AWWA 2004 survey results. Table 3. What is your utility s typical percentage of unpaid residential water bills? a) None % b) 0.1%-1.0% % c) 1.1%-2.0% % d) 2.1%-3.0% % 5.63% e) More than 3.0% % f) Don t know % Total responses 302 3

4 First, 3 poll questions for utility participants to compare to AWWA 2004 survey results. Table5.Onascaleof1to7(where1means strongly a 1 strongly disagree and 7 means strongly agree ), please rate how much you agree or disagree with the following statement: Nonpayment of residential water bills is a growing problem for our utility % % % % % % % No response/response error % Total responses 302 4

5 Prior Work by the Water Research Foundation Water Affordability Programs [Project #184] Ordering Information: ORDER NUMBER: DATE AVAILABLE: Summer 1998 PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Margot Saunders, Phyllis Kimmel, Maggie Spade, and Nancy Brockway 5

6 Process Approach to Assisting Payment Troubled Customers 6

7 Defining Objectives Significance Targeting 7

8 US Census: Hardships resulting from household budget trade-offs. Didn't pay full gas, electric, oil 9.9 Needed to see dentist but didn't Didn't pay full rent or mortgage Needed to see doctor but didn't Not enough to eat 4.8 Telephone eep edsco disconnected eced Gas, electric, oil disconnected 1.9 Evicted for non-payment of rent Percent of population 8

9 Affordability is defined as a threshold concept. Monthly HH Income ($ s per month) 2x FPL Federal Poverty Level (FPL) Monthly Cost of Essentials Can t pay Won t pay Can t pay py when due Months 9

10 Best Practice: 1) define objectives for target sub-groups, 2) define proactive approaches, 3) and continually improve. Elderly Low Income Disabled Identify and study target sub-groups. Target outreach with information about conservation, other assistance programs, and utility assistance. Adapt billing for target sub-groups. Train staff to high level of 1 st point of contact readiness. Effective interventions after-the-fact. After-care to minimize recurrences. 10

11 Core Process: Proactively Shrink the Problem 11

12 Strategy 1 Shrink the Bills Reduce the scale of the problem at the household level. Reduce the overall scale of the problem for the utility. 12

13 Strategy 2 Shrink the Overdue Caseload and Arrearages One-on-one practices to minimize household burdens. Collectively, l reduce overall caseload burden. 13

14 Strategy 3 Shrink the Cost of Collections Caseload reduction can be cost efficient. e May involve upfront or additional costs. Cost Benefit more important than cost minimization. 14

15 Support Processes IT support to identify & track customers. Communications i support to reach customers before-the-fact. Training to treat caseload most effectively. 15

16 Performance Measurement and Continual Improvement Process framework supports continual improvement. Benchmarks can help measure year- over-year progress. 16

17 Dfi Define Objectives Do we fully understand the nature and significance of nonpayment of utility bills in the community? Is this embedded das part of the shared values of staff, management and governing board members? Have we identified da meaningful set of sub-groups within the customer base that require targeted assistance to alleviate nonpayment problems? Have we established objectives for treating nonpayment issues within these sub-groups? 17

18 Proactively Shrink kthe Problem Have we assembled the best possible combinations of strategies and practices to shrink the bills for the target sub-groups? Are we implementing these strategies and practices as well as possible? Have we assembled the best possible combination of strategies and practices to shrink the overdue caseload and arrearages for the target sub-groups? Are we implementing these strategies and practices as well as possible? Are we tracking the cost and effectiveness of our overall program in order to determine the best way to shrink the cost of collections while also achieving our broader, longer-term objectives in the community? 18

19 Measure Performance and Continually Improve Have we assembled the best possible combination of strategies and practices in our support processes to provide legal support, personnel training, information technology and communications support to the overall customer payment assistance process? Have we developed and implemented a comprehensive set of activity and outcome measures to evaluate the application and effectiveness of individual strategies and practices? Is measurement and evaluation tied din to re-evaluation of objectives and performance goals to push continual improvement of the customer payment assistance process? 19

20 Continual Improvement. ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ELEMENT Leadership and Shared Sense of Significance Understanding and Targeting of Sub Groups Conservation Assistance Billing Practices Bill Discounts Alternative Rate Structures Prevention Before-the-Fact Effective Intervention After-the-Fact Crisis Assistance Deferred Payment Plans Programs to Minimize Recurrences Managing the Cost of Collections Legal Support Personnel Training Information Technology Support Communications Support Performance Measurement & Continual Improvement PERFORMANCE LEVEL AS IS SHOULD BE 20

21 Process Approach to Assisting Payment Troubled Customers 21