In October 2022, our Customer Service team started testing a new meter reading process to provide customers with more accurate bills.
The new strategy had one goal: to get as many actual meter readings as possible.
Most very high bills result from estimating many months in a row. Without actual meter reads to bring charges back into line with a customer's true use, too-low estimations can result in a backlog of unbilled service.
When that happens, a customer may recieve a high bill once an actual meter read takes place and months of underbilling are corrected at once.
To correct this, we have decided to concentrate on reading our customers' meters every other month. As a result, our meter readers are now achieving over 95% of actual reads, compared with 60-80% of actual reads before we implemented this strategy.
More acurate reads means we can make more acurate estimates.
Under our new meter reading process, we alternate reading your meter and estimating your water use every other month—at least until smart meters are in operation.
Door Hanger Program
Our Meter Readers have begun hanging doorhangers. The front of the tag marks that a SWBNO employee visited the property and what actions were taken. For instance, it will alert the customer if a Meter Reader is unable to read a meter. The back communicates updates regarding the Smart Meter Program rollout.
Smart meters will provide real-time data of your water use to SWBNO, allowing for accurate bills without SWBNO physically reading your meter every month.
The first smart meters are expected to be installed in fall of 2023, but the program will take three years to fully implement.
While we work through our Smart Meter implementation, we are optimistic this new meter reading strategy will help solve the issue of considerably high bills due to many months of under-estimating.
SWBNO will continue providing updates to let customers know how the process is improving our billing system overall.
We hear you, and we're working hard to meet your needs.
Questions?
Want to dispute your bill? Learn more about our Bill Dispute Process here. The first step is to call 504-52-WATER (Select your language option and then press 4 for Customer Service.)
Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about your account, billing or smart meters.