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The City of Lorain, Ohio Adds IVR and IWR Solutions to Utility Department for Round-the-Clock service
PORTLAND, OREGON — January 1, 2008 — The City of Lorain, Ohio will make its Utility services more accessible to the public, by opting for a cost-saving technology solution and improving service at the same time. With its choice of Selectron's VoiceUtility and WebUtility systems, the City is addressing the growing challenge of accepting various payment methods along with walk-in customers
“We were looking for a single company to provide solutions for taking both credit card payments over the phone and also providing our customers with a web payment solution,” says Lorain's Utilities IT Manager, Troy Werner, explaining the City's reasons for choosing Selectron as the vendor most qualified to implement their new Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Interactive Web Response (IWR) solution.
“Because not all IVR vendors offer both solutions, the decision came down to two companies with Selectron being the company of choice because of their ability to meet our requirements,” says Werner. “Selectron offered us the ability to provide our own hardware if we so desired, the ability to interface with our in-house credit card payment processing software, a track record of working with our legacy hardware platform and they offered this solution at a lower price than their competitor.”
The City began taking credit card payments over the phone about four years ago. Most of the customers who pay their bill through this method before that time mailed in a check. The number of people who paid their bill in person remained steady. So, there has been a marked increase in calls, and no additional cashiers to handle the increase.
Most credit card payments over the phone are from people who previously mailed in a check for their payment; our walk up volume has not decreased. Over the last four years since taking credit card payments over the phone began, we have not added any additional cashiers to handle the increased volume. The volume has increased to the point that a new cashier will be needed without the implementation of an IVR system to handle these calls.
“We are extremely excited about the implementation of the VoiceUtility product,” says Werner. “We are currently averaging over 450 credit card phone payments a month, which are being handled manually by our cashiers. This will benefit our customers, who will now have access to their account information and the ability to make a payment over the phone or through the internet near 24/7.”
“We are pleased that the City of Lorain has chosen VoiceUtility and WebUtility to help handle the credit card processing in the Utility Department,” says Selectron Vice President, David Fay. “Our overall understanding of the Utility environment and our ability to rapidly build a web and phone interface into their existing New World financial system makes us the perfect vendor to deliver a solution that will free up their cashiers time to service the walk-in volume, and focus on more challenging customer service issues.”
About Selectron Technologies, Inc.
Selectron Technologies, Inc. is the premier provider of Interactive
Voice, Web, and Mobile Inspection Solutions for government agencies.
An extensive suite of products helps increase staff efficiency,
reduce infrastructure cost, and ensure customer satisfaction. Equipped
with the industry's top talent, proven methodologies, and more
than thirteen years of experience, Selectron offers innovative
and cost-effective interactive solutions for a variety of municipal
departments including: Building & Planning, Business License,
Election Office, Courts and Citations, Tax Assessment, Utility
Billing/Finance, and Zoning.
For more information, please visit Selectron
Technologies or call (866) 878-0048.
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