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Click to edit Master title style. Utility Payment Conference. Duke Energy’s Payment Strategy. Jeff Hill Senior Business Operations Analyst October, 2009. 5 states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky 47,000 square miles of service area - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Click to edit Master title style
Jeff HillSenior Business Operations Analyst October, 2009
Duke Energy’s Payment Strategy
Utility Payment Conference
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U.S. Franchised Electric & Gas
5 states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky
47,000 square miles of service area
28,000 MW of regulated generating capacity
4 million retail electric customers
500,000 retail gas customers
History of Duke’s Walk In Payment Processing
Since 1988, Duke has used an on-line cash system for real time (or pending) payment posting. Real time payment information is vital for debt management activities and customer satisfaction.
Several upgrades via in-house developed systems (i.e. automatic reconnect orders).
Late 2007, RFP sent out to vendors and Global Express selected as vendor for Duke’s SE pay agent network.
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Previous Walk-In Payment Strategy
Network of Payment Centers and authorized pay agents
Utilize in-house developed cash drawer systems
Payment centers are Duke Energy owned/leased and staffed by contractors
Duke contracts directly with each pay agent
Customer support (connect, disconnect, high bill) is performed via customer service phone to Call Center
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Current Walk-In Payment Strategy
Move away from Duke supported infrastructure (i.e. workstations, broadband, banking, and support)
Utilize network of vendor managed pay agents
Evaluate existing Payment Centers and add vendor managed pay agents to provide customers additional options or potentially move to all vendor pay agents when timing is right
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CPI – Common Payment Interface
A web service enabling 2-way communication between Duke and our various pay channels.
Search capabilities for various pay channels. For example, pay agents can search by customer name, address or phone number to locate a customer’s account without a bill stub.
More information provided to the pay channel for customer’s benefit, i.e. balance owed (current and past due), disconnect date and amount to avoid disconnect. Helps optimize self-service channels for customers and provides consistency across all channels.
Communication back to pay channel so customer is aware of what action will take place. For pay agents, messaging is printed on the receipt such as “Disconnect Stopped”.
Provides common channel to route all information flowing between Duke and its payment vendors (pay agent, IVR/Phone, e-Bill).
Enables future adoption of new payment methods (kiosks, cell phone, etc.) and is scalable for new acquisitions or mergers.
Customer Benefits of CPI Immediate recognition of payment such that correct account
balances will be recognized and quoted by the IVR and WEB
Immediately stops disconnection or issues a reconnect where feasible, reducing disconnects in error
No manual intervention -- eliminates the need for a customer to call back and supports Duke’s efforts for first call resolution
Builds customer confidence that credit actions are taken care of properly based on confirmation messages
Customers will have access to multiple self-service channels to obtain current account information and make payments (i.e. IVR, WEB, e-Bill)
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Future Strategy
More choices/options for customer convenience
Push to lower cost channels and self service models
Evaluate remaining Payment Centers
Expansion of pay agent network
Evaluate kiosk approach that would integrate real time payments via CPI
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