As the result of a listserv question, the post included a poll asking how utilities notify customers after they have been cut off for non-payment.

Poll results

The poll results overwhelmingly confirmed my observation that most utilities do one of two things to let a customer know they have been cut off – leave a door hangar or do nothing at all.

Here are the results of the poll:

Contact by phone or e-mail

Three responses indicated they contact customers by phone or e-mail. (Although, based on one of the comments, I suspect one of the phone call responses misunderstood the poll and indicated how they contact customers before being cut off).

I was initially surprised that some utilities take the time to phone or e-mail accounts that have been disconnected for non-payment. After discussing this with a customer, I realized some utilities have good reason to do so. Utilities that serve customers who aren’t year-round residents (for example, beach communities) might want to let non-resident customers know their service has been terminated.

Another year is almost behind us

This year marked a milestone with the 100th issue!

If you haven’t checked our my blog recently, I encourage you to do so. Each newsletter article is also posted to the website as an archive. So, if you can’t find an old newsletter e-mail that you wish you still had, try searching for it there!

April of this year was the busiest month ever for our blog with 894 page views and November 26 was the most active day ever with 235 hits.

Most popular blog posts

For the third year in a row, convenience fees were the most popular blog post topic. Here are the five most popular blog posts in terms of page views for the past year:

  1. Can we charge a convenience fee for credit card payments…?
  2. How much is your late fee?
  3. Do you have a cash handling policy?
  4. Are you following these meter reading best practices?
  5. Who trains your new hires…?

Happy New Year!

I wish you and yours all the best for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2015!