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Lancaster EagleGazette.com
Take a stroll through Lancaster's utilities collection
office and you will be greeted, and possibly driven to your wits' end,
by a continuous chorus of telephones ringing. Through the first three months of 2010, the department is on pace to
receive almost 64,000 calls this year. In April, an average of 253 calls
were received per day, which is about one call every two minutes.
"There
are nights when I can't wait to get in the car and turn the radio off
and have everything be quiet," said Jennie Nixon, superintendent of
utilities collection.
Nixon estimated about 30 percent of the
calls are from people wishing to pay their bills over the phone. She
hopes those calls are eliminated by the end of the year, when the {tag online
payment system} is expected to be available. "That's very critical
for us to get that up and going. Unfortunately we are experiencing a
bit of a delay," she said. The nature of the calls include billing
questions, requests to set up or turn off service, and other customer
service inquiries. Sherri Hintz, customer service manager for
utilities collection, said the recession has led to an increase in calls
received. The number of calls has steadily increased each month in 2010
from 4,266 in January to 5,565 calls in April. "The economy is
not the best right now. More people are struggling financially and are
unable to pay their bills," Hintz said. Nixon said the department
does its best to aid people in need through setting up extended payment
systems or working out other solutions. "It is tough out there and
we understand that," she said. "We are doing our best and are trying
our hardest to help." Six customer service representatives are
responsible for answering calls. Nixon said the department has two fewer
employees than it did a few years ago. She said the high
frequency of calls often pressures employees to expedite their work. "Any
time a new customer is establishing a service and the application
process is face-to-face, that contact may be pushed along to save time,"
Nixon said. She hopes the eventual addition of an {tag e-bill
system}, which would send bills electronically, and efforts to make bills
more clear and user-friendly will cut down on the number of calls to
the office. "But really, we can only reduce it so much," she said. |
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