Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 08 Jul 2005 12:08

SMS based CRM could cut meter readings costs as well as help increase consumer confidence says Digital Rum

The UK energy industry’s billing systems manage 47 million customer accounts and delivers 200 million bills a year, energy suppliers were recently told by regulator Ofgem that they have a year to improve the way they bill their domestic customers – or face regulatory action.

This action was sparked by consumer champion energywatch who said recently that it alone receives 40,000 complaints a year from consumers on billing issues, making up 61.5% of all its complaints.

The problem for the utilities is that just reading a meter can cost between £1.60 and £10 which quickly adds up.

As a result consumer's complaints include failing to deliver bills for months and even years; bills being wrongly calculated; companies not bothering to read meters and relying on estimates (36% of all bills).

The spread of water meters makes things worse as these meters have to be read by someone. The problem for water companies is that they can't shut water off legally so they have to find creative ways to make you pay by offering discounts or gifts for early payment. The problem of reading the meter is made worse as some water meters are inside the house requiring an appointment to obtain entry.

SMS CRM

Estimated bills concern consumers as they suspect they are over paying and for the utility company through potential under collection. The number of estimated bills could be cut by sending out a request for the consumer to read the meter and reply by SMS. "The system needs a certain level of sophistication to be able to understand the responses from consumers" said Pike. "We have refined our natural language process to understand and check a wide variety of responses" he said.

"It isn't enough just to send out one way SMS any more" said Pike, "the whole process must be integrated with the backend. Once you have done that there are a whole range of added value ways to use text messaging" said Pike.

For example using SMS integrated into a CRM system would mean that when an appointment is needed for a visit confirmations of anticipated arrival times can be sent out and confirmed back, saving time for both meter reader and home owner.

Many people are suspicious of Direct Debit payments and using SMS bill payments could be activated with a credit or debit card when the consumer knows the money is there in the bank to pay the bill.

Coordinating transfers with house moves is another problem that could be solved with mobile as the mobile number goes with the consumer when they move house. Text messaging can also help the many consumers who don't like talking to call centers.

"We have been talking to a number of utility companies and they have been surprised by how much the ROI stacks up" said Pike. "We hope to announce a deal with a water company in next few weeks. Once that is up and running we expect that some of the big players will follow."

www.digitalrum.com