Benton PUD: Smart move for customers

Traditionally, Benton PUD’s responsibility as a utility was to keep the lights on and the rates low. While providing reliable and affordable electric service may have been enough in the past, today’s utility customers want more.

Utilities recognize that new technologies have changed consumer expectations. As consumers pursue electric vehicles, decide to add roof-top solar or want real-time information about their accounts, utilities must be able to handle these changing expectations and be an information resource for their customers.

Today’s customers expect more when it comes to communications. As your trusted energy partner, our staff at Benton PUD wants to respond quickly and accurately to your questions and assist you as needed. We also want to be able to proactively notify you of key events and account status changes as well as provide you ways to review your account and usage details anytime, at your convenience whether it’s in person, on your computer or on your smart phone.

In March 2017, Benton PUD customers were introduced to SmartHub®. This online tool, available on a computer, tablet or smart phone, provides customers an easy way to manage their accounts, make payments and access billing and payment history. In addition, customers can monitor their hourly, daily and monthly electric usage. By watching how their usage trends over time, SmartHub® users are able to take steps to reduce consumption and lower their bills.

More recently, Benton PUD added an outage center to our website featuring a near-real-time outage map, which displays the general location of an outage. This same outage map is available in SmartHub®, where customers can also report an outage and sign up for notifications by text or email when an outage occurs at their service address or is restored.

In less than a year, over a third of our customers have enrolled in SmartHub® and are using it to pay their bills, manage their accounts, monitor usage and track outage information. This tool is a good example of how Benton PUD is using technology to meet our customers growing expectations and striving to be our customers’ trusted energy partner.

This story was originally published April 1, 2018 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Benton PUD: Smart move for customers."