Laserfiche WebLink
Ji <br />Elk River -~ <br />Municipal Utilities <br />13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Phone: 763.441.2020 <br />Elk River, MN 55330-0430 Fax: 763.441.8099 <br />May 8, 2008 <br />To: Elk River Municipal Utilities commission <br />Jerry Takle <br />Jerry Gumphrey <br />John Dietz <br />From: Theresa Slominski <br />Subject: Possible ACH Incentives <br />I solicited some office help and conducted an informal survey of some utilities (that were <br />of similar size and larger) and asked what they were doing to offer ACH incentives to <br />encourage customer participation. The utilities surveyed were Connexus, Connections, <br />Austin, Hibbing, LeSeur, Owatonna, Shakopee, and Willmar. Currently, none of these <br />surveyed utilities are offering an incentive, however, some had offered it before and then <br />discontinued it. One utility offered the reason they discontinued it was because they had <br />people moving in and out of dwellings and receiving multiple credit incentives, and it <br />became difficult to keep track of who had already received the incentive and who hadn't. <br />For the others, I can only surmise that they felt they had reached the participation <br />saturation for current customers that were willing to switch and were able to "direct ask" <br />the new customers. <br />Connexus had a different incentive that they are currently offering and it is for signing up <br />for E-billing instead of paper billing. It is a one-time incentive of a $5.00 credit or <br />signing up. <br />Currently at ERMU, to encourage ACH participation we have the application on the back <br />of the bill statements and receive an average of 30 new applicants every month. Last <br />month's total number of customers on ACH was 2,019 out of approximately 9,400 total <br />customers. <br />To offer an incentive, it would need to be large enough to be enticing, but not too large <br />that it is a burden of the other utility customers that are subsidizing it. A one-time credit <br />is probably the most effective as far as enticement, and yet poses a tracking problem as <br />noted above. A monthly credit could be marketed so that it is a total dollar amount that is <br />perceived as large enough (for example $.50 per month for a total of $6.00 per year.) If a <br />