Use case · Local authority
On the day of an outage, the switchboard takes 600 calls for the same answer
The utility supplies water to 38,000 subscribers. Every scheduled intervention generates calls, every bill questions, every unpaid invoice a letter. The front office has four people, and on the day of an outage they all answer the same question.
No credit card required
The starting point
The information exists, it just does not arrive before the call
Interventions are planned days in advance, but the subscriber finds out when the tap runs dry. Unpaid bills are chased by post, with no distinction between an oversight and real hardship. And the front office does not have, on screen, the invoice the subscriber is talking about.
- 600 calls on the day of an outage, all for the same information
- Payment follow-ups go out in a single wave, by post
- The front desk agent looks for the invoice in another system
- No history of exchanges on the subscriber record
What we put in place
Warn before, answer during, follow up after
- 01
The intervention warns the subscribers concerned
A scheduled intervention triggers an SMS to the subscribers in the area the day before, and a second one when service is restored. The message is ready, only the street changes.
- 02
The switchboard knows what is going on
During an outage, the greeting message announces the area and the expected time of restoration before anyone is put on hold. The calls that remain are the ones that genuinely need an agent.
- 03
Unpaid bills are chased gently
SMS at 15 days, email at 30, call at 45: the follow-up is graduated, traced on the record, and stops as soon as payment arrives or a payment plan is set.
- 04
The subscriber record brings everything together
Invoices, meter readings, transcribed calls, interventions, payment plans: the agent who picks up sees everything, and the subscriber has nothing to repeat.
What it shifts
What the setup aims for
- ≈ −70%
- calls on the day of an announced intervention
- ≈ 6% → 3%
- of invoices unpaid at 60 days
- 0
- re-entry between billing and front office
- 1
- message to write per intervention
Go further
The building blocks used
Virtual phone system
The complete SMB switchboard: greeting, routing, queues and statistics.
DiscoverSMS campaigns
The channel read in 3 minutes — custom sender and delivery receipts included.
DiscoverInvoicing software
Compliant invoices, sent, tracked and paid.
DiscoverAutomation workflows
A trigger, conditions, actions — across every hub at once.
Discover360° customer view
The entire customer relationship on a single record: activities, deals, exchanges.
DiscoverFAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does the utility keep its billing software?
Yes. Invoices and meter readings are imported or synchronised so they appear on the subscriber record; billing stays where it is.
How do we target the subscribers on one street?
By segment: the address, the sector or the round are properties of the record. The “street X” segment is created once and reused.
Is a subscriber in hardship treated like an oversight?
No. As soon as a payment plan or a referral to social services is recorded, the automatic follow-up stops.
Is SMS allowed for this type of information?
Service information linked to the contract is not marketing. Marketing consent is tracked separately, for optional communications.
Another question? Write to us — a human will answer.
Before you decide
Try the whole suite, for free
The Discovery plan is not a crippled demo: all eight hubs are open, two users, a thousand contacts, a hundred credits on us. No card and no end date. Model your first file and judge for yourself.
Create a free accountNo card, no automated sales chasing, and no feature that closes after fourteen days.
Comparisons
Coming from somewhere else? The migration is gentle
Contacts, companies, opportunities, tasks, segments and email templates come across from Brevo, HubSpot or an export. Keep your old tool as long as you need: nothing forces a big-bang switch, and nothing is deleted on your side.
Compare with your current toolReady to bring all your tools together?
Create your free account in two minutes: CRM, telephony, marketing, appointments and customer service — all in one place, with AI built in.
No credit card required