Real-time relief delivered through intelligent workflows with Convey

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, utilities faced an unprecedented challenge.

Customers who had never struggled to pay their bills were suddenly facing unemployment, financial uncertainty and difficult choices about essential expenses. At the same time, utilities had to respond quickly to changing regulations, evolving assistance programs and rapidly increasing customer demand.

For one of the nation’s largest utilities, serving more than 8 million customers across seven states, the need was immediate: provide financial relief to customers while maintaining trust and keeping operations running.

The utility needed a way to move quickly without placing additional strain on already-limited IT and support resources.

A new kind of customer challenge

In the early weeks of the pandemic, widespread job losses created significant financial hardship for utility customers.

The utility was facing several challenges at once:

• Customers were struggling to pay their bills as unemployment increased.
• Moratorium timelines were uncertain, while unpaid balances continued to grow.
• Customers needed clear and compassionate information about available assistance.
• Internal IT and support teams had limited capacity to take on new initiatives.
• Legacy systems were not designed for rapidly changing communication needs.
• Customers were turning to call centers for help, increasing call volume and wait times.

The utility needed to launch a Deferred Payment Assistance (DPA) program quickly, but traditional approaches would have required significant development and operational resources.

The solution needed to reach customers proactively, determine eligibility, present personalized offers and allow customers to respond without requiring an agent.

Launching financial assistance in just 3.5 weeks

The utility partnered with Convey to launch a fully digital Deferred Payment Assistance program across six states.

The timeline was critical.

The program went from concept to deployment in just 3.5 weeks, allowing the utility to begin connecting eligible customers with financial assistance while the need was immediate.

Using EONS, the utility was able to automate outreach through SMS and IVR, validate eligibility and deliver personalized offers without requiring agent support or additional IT lift.

Instead of asking customers to call and navigate a traditional assistance process, the utility brought the opportunity directly to them.

Proactive outreach reached more than 500,000 customers

The program ultimately delivered proactive, no-contact DPA offers to more than 500,000 customers.

For customers experiencing financial hardship, proactive communication meant they didn’t have to know where to look for assistance or wait on hold to find out whether they qualified. The utility could identify eligible customers and deliver personalized offers directly through digital channels. And customers could respond without requiring an agent to manage every interaction.

A self-service experience

The DPA program was designed to make the assistance process easier for both customers and utility teams. Customers could receive offers through SMS or IVR, respond to the offer and receive confirmation via email. Responses were processed instantly, creating a streamlined self-service experience while helping reduce inbound calls and wait times.

For a utility dealing with high call center demand, that shift mattered.

Every customer who could complete the assistance process without contacting an agent represented less pressure on customer care teams and a simpler path to relief for the customer.

Multichannel communication met customers where they were

Financial hardship does not affect every customer in the same way, and neither does communication preference.

The program used SMS, IVR and email to reach customers across multiple channels. That multichannel approach helped the utility extend the program’s reach while giving customers different ways to receive and respond to important information.

The result was a digital assistance experience that could operate at significant scale without requiring the utility to expand its agent or IT resources at the same pace.

21% of eligible customers opted in

The program delivered measurable engagement. Of the customers eligible for assistance, 21% opted in to the Deferred Payment Assistance program.

That response demonstrated the value of proactively connecting customers with available support rather than relying exclusively on customers to seek assistance themselves. It also gave the utility a way to respond to a rapidly changing customer need without creating another manual process for its internal teams.

Turning an urgent response into lasting capability

The pandemic created an immediate need, but the utility’s response demonstrated the longer-term value of intelligent, automated workflows.

The program helped the utility:

• Deliver a new assistance program in just 3.5 weeks
• Reach more than 500,000 customers proactively
• Allow 21% of eligible customers to opt in
• Reduce inbound calls and wait times through self-service
• Process customer responses instantly
• Deliver personalized communications across SMS, IVR and email
• Reduce strain on internal IT and support teams
• Maintain a more transparent and personalized customer experience during a period of significant uncertainty

The experience also helped strengthen the utility’s digital readiness and confidence in its ability to respond quickly when customer needs change.

From crisis response to customer connection

The pandemic forced utilities to rethink how quickly they could respond to customer needs. For this utility, the Deferred Payment Assistance program showed that a traditionally complex process could be transformed into a digital, proactive experience in a matter of weeks.

Rather than waiting for customers to call for help, the utility could identify eligible customers, communicate directly with them and give them a path to assistance without requiring agent intervention.

That approach helped turn an urgent operational challenge into an opportunity to build stronger customer relationships.

The utility ultimately received Chartwell’s Gold Award for innovation in billing and payments for its work.

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Frequently asked questions about Convey’s help with down payment asistance programs

What is Deferred Payment Assistance?

Deferred Payment Assistance, or DPA, is a program that allows eligible customers experiencing financial hardship to receive payment assistance or alternative payment arrangements. In this case, the utility created a digital DPA program in response to financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The utility launched its fully digital Deferred Payment Assistance program across six states in just 3.5 weeks.

How many customers received DPA offers through Convey?

More than 500,000 customers received proactive, no-contact Deferred Payment Assistance offers.

How did customers receive their assistance offers?

The program used Convey’s SMS and IVR for proactive outreach, with email used to provide confirmation. This multichannel approach helped the utility reach customers through multiple communication methods.

How did the program with Convey help reduce call center pressure?

By proactively identifying eligible customers and giving them a self-service path to assistance, the program reduced the need for customers to call the utility for help. The case study reports reduced inbound calls and wait times.

What percentage of eligible customers opted into assistance?

21% of eligible customers opted in to the Deferred Payment Assistance program.

How did EONS support the program?

EONS enabled the utility to automate real-time outreach through SMS and IVR, validate eligibility and deliver personalized offers. It also supported instant response processing and email confirmation.

How did the program reduce the burden on IT teams?

The solution integrated with the utility’s existing systems and was deployed without requiring additional IT lift. This allowed the utility to launch the assistance program quickly despite limited internal IT capacity.

What was the broader impact of the program?

Beyond helping customers access financial assistance, the program strengthened customer trust through proactive and personalized outreach and increased the utility’s confidence in its digital readiness. The initiative was also recognized with Chartwell’s Gold Award for innovation in billing and payments.