Listen to the customer — that’s the lesson learned by Pasco County after unhappy residents repeatedly complained during the past year about exorbitant and sometimes unexplainable water bills.
“It is moving in the right direction,” said Marc Bellas, director of performance development for Pasco County, referring to the county’s efforts to create a more customer-friendly water department.
Bellas appeared before the Pasco County Commission on Dec. 15 to deliver an update on steps being taken to correct deficiencies in the water department billing procedures.
After numerous complaints about water bills by customers, Pasco County Clerk and Comptroller Paula O’Neil ordered an audit by the solicitor general.
One of those complaints came from Louise Gritmon who was floored by a bill she received in July 2014 for more than $3,300.
The county billed Gritmon for 614,000 gallons of water during an 18-day period at a time when Gritmon said her house was vacant.
An analysis of 361 accounts, including the bill to Gritmon, resulted in 60 billing adjustments ranging from just under $2 to more than $3,000 less in Gritmon’s case.
Her bill was lowered to $40, which Gritmon had argued for months was the amount of a normal bill at her house.
Commissioners in November rewrote an ordinance to include language permitting the billing adjustments as a one-time event. Previously, county officials said they had no authority to make adjustments.
Many of the high bills were explainable as leaks or from irrigation of lawns, Bellas said. But, he added: “There were some key errors on our part, and a lot of things going wrong. You’ve got to start with a culture shift.”
That shift, according to Bellas, is meant to move the water department from an office focused on compliance to one focused on customer service and education.
Significant progress has been made, and more is coming, Bellas told commissioners.
The audit found deficiencies in the county’s meter reading and billing process, software glitches, inaccessible meters, inconsistent readings and alerts to potential leaks that weren’t passed on to customers.
To address problems, the county changed a confusing billing format that listed an account number, a customer number and a bill number. How the customer paid a bill could determine which number was used, Bellas said.
A third-party billing system should save the county about $80,000 a year, he said.
Pasco also budgeted for additional staff to boost to 11 the number of full-time customer service representatives. Bellas said that is barely more than a minimum of nine employees needed as “best practice.”
Employees also received more training, with a focus on quicker response times. Progress has been made, Bellas said.
The number of abandoned phone calls dropped from 50 percent in August to 13 percent in November. And, a wait time of 20 minutes decreased to about four minutes.
Bellas also said the customers whose bills were reviewed were asked to rate their service. About 81 percent were satisfied, he said.
That says a lot for how employees are responding to the complaints, Bellas said.
But, Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano said he would like to see more improvements.
“I don’t think there would be any private company that would be happy with those numbers,” he said.
Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore said he did his own checking on customer service by calling the water department with questions on how to pay his last three water bills. He didn’t identify himself as a commissioner.
“The person that helped me was great,” he said, at least on the first call. “The second person, not so much.”
The first employee who was outgoing and friendly, he said, “Those are the people you want to possibly train the others.”
But, Bellas said he hadn’t heard any “really bad stories” from people. “You want most of your customers to be thrilled with what you’ve done, but you can’t always please everybody that’s coming through.”
Part of the solution is on making it easier for customers to understand their bills, and Bellas said the new bill is easier to read. But, efforts to educate the public also matter, he added.
Some high bills resulted from lawn irrigation, he said, adding that residents are often unaware of how much water their lawns soak up.
Published December 23, 2015
