Customer since: 2007
Where it all started:
In the beginning, directworx’s role was limited to cleansing Burlington Hydro’s customer database to correspond to Canada Post’s specs for reduced-rate postage. In 2009, we took over the folding, inserting and delivery of bills to Canada Post. A year later we added printing of PDF files to our list of responsibilities. In 2011, with time-of-use billing around the corner, directworx began helping Burlington Hydro with additional customer mailings.
What wasn’t working:
Burlington Hydro had been using the same bill format for many years—black type, rudimentary graphs, and scattered, hard-to-follow information—with disappointing results. Customers were confused and customer service reps overworked. Residential, industrial and commercial account holders all received the same kind of bill. Time-of-use billing would only make a bad situation worse.
The billworx solution:
A quick presentation to the CEO was all it took to convince Burlington Hydro that there was a simple way to increase the effectiveness of their monthly bills and take the worry out of time-of-use billing. The most attractive aspects of billworx were:
- Its easy-to-understand format
- The use of colours associated with time of use (red, yellow and green)
to increase comprehension and encourage behavior change - Colourful, simple graphs
- The ability to segment customers into different categories (business, residential, water-only, preauthorized payment etc.) and tailor messages to each
- Printing messages on the bill rather than on costly inserts
- Ensuring only customers who need an insert (e.g. payment envelope) receive one
The bottom line:
With the help of billworx, Burlington Hydro faced a challenge head-on, turning it into an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships, fulfill CDM targets and save money.
In their words
“The directworx team is responsive, accommodating and effective. They assisted with the marketing aspect of our successful conversion to time of use pricing. We found their input to be valuable, providing seamless, automated integration with our systems to reduce work at our end. Further, the redesign project was completed on time and on budget, with no disruption of service.”
Jennifer Smith, Vice President, Corporate Relations, Burlington Hydro Inc.
