Improved Bill Design Reduces Call Center Costs

It costs communications companies $1.12 (or more) for every minute spent answering billing-related questions. By providing customers with easy-to-understand invoices, a company can dramatically reduce the number of billing-related calls it gets. The fact is, customers are less likely to call if they understand the descriptions and charges on their bills.

First off, it’s not enough to assume you understand the needs of your customers; you have to hear the specifics from customers themselves and CSRs taking the calls. So over the past two years, ComTec has held focus groups within the United States spanning the cable, telecom and utility industries. The objectives of these sessions were to discuss subscriber issues related to overall statement design, packaging, itemization and language, as well as collection communications and activities. These focus groups revealed that many billing issues are common across many industries. Conversely, some issues are company-specific, product-specific and even geographically specific.

Prorated Bills Cause the Most Confusion

Across every industry, company and location, the top call-driver was found to be prorated bills. CSRs from nearly every focus group explained that because of the way prorates are presented, customers often perceive they are being overcharged or charged for the same service twice.

With few exceptions, customers only receive pro-rated bills in a couple of common scenarios. The first is the new customer who questions the first bill, because it often includes prepayment of two or more months of service. By adopting a slightly different design for the new customer’s initial bill, which more formally explains the first charges and what the customer should expect to see in the months to follow, many companies have seen dramatic reductions in these types of inquiries.

Most other prorates are caused by some type of service level change during the billing period. Whether the customer upgraded, downgraded or adopted new services, the presentation of different services within the same billing period is often confusing and gives customers the impression they are paying for more than they actually are. Reminding customers that the charges on the invoice are a result in a change of service, requested on a specific date, helps them better understand the varying date ranges associated with items on their bill.

Certain types of collection messaging and design concepts also drive phone calls. In several instances, statements for customers who had past-due balances showed payment due “on receipt” rather than by an actual due date. Many customers receiving the bills would call to find out what amount had to be paid by what date to prevent service interruption. By clarifying these dates and amounts on the invoices, customer concerns were addressed and call center minutes were saved. “Once this small change was put in place, our calls surrounding this issue dropped from 10 percent to virtually zero,” says Pamela Langston-Vanderpluym, project administrator for Time Warner of Memphis.

Another common billing issue is the need to present multiple services in one “packaged” description. The findings are that customers do not understand the industry jargon and company terminology often used to describe services on their bill and therefore call to verify the legitimacy or necessity of the services.

“Customers no longer see a laundry list of services on their bill—only a total for the package, a discount amount and the net due. Before this, we were being inundated with phone calls by customers who went down the itemized bill, downgrading services in an attempt to lower their monthly bill,” says Bobby Kendrick, VP of finance for Time Warner in Eastern Carolina. “We have taken control of what is presented, and now the customer perceives great value in their service, rather than opportunities to downgrade.”

Connecting with Special Populations

A local study showed that 33 percent of the population of Shreveport, LA, was considered “functionally illiterate.” In order to communicate most efficiently with customers, Time Warner Cable of Shreveport creatively incorporated many graphical elements into their design. Likewise, a national study determined that Time Warner’s Minneapolis region had the highest number of college graduates of any metro area in the United States. This insight led to using terminology and language in the bill that is slightly more sophisticated than usual. It also helped the division promote educational programming that might be more attractive to its subscribers.

The focus groups have triggered significant improvements to the clarity of bills. Revising a bill design generally involves system changes at the CRM level and in the preprinted forms, and some revisions require implementing business rules to overcome the limitations of legacy billing systems. Often the efforts are neither daunting nor costly, and in the end they have a direct impact on the bottom line. They translate into a reduction in inbound phone calls, increased business efficiency and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.


Laura Dean is Director of Marketing & Product Management and has been with ComTec, Inc. since 1999. As the former Director of Client Services for ComTec, she created a "Bill Design Task Force" and played an active role in client and CSR focus groups, re-design efforts and design research. She can be reached at ldean@comtecnet.com.