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CustomerAssist is your trusted managed services partner for utility operations – billing, contact center services, and more.

In an era marked by retirements, hiring challenges, and skilled personnel shortages, securing a dependable partner to maintain operational and cost efficiency is more crucial than ever. CustomerAssist helps enhance the customer experience and maintain high performance without overburdening internal teams.

  • Experience talent with deep operations experience
  • AI-powered automation for fast, consistent responses at scale
  • Flexible engagement (end-to-end or fee-per service)
  • Business continuity and resilience

Discover How to Get More from Your CIS

Get a free one-day utilization review of any three Customer Information System (CIS) processes—no obligation, just actionable insights to identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and maximize your existing investment.

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Your Roadmap to Results

Implementing CustomerAssist is a streamlined, collaborative low-disruption process.

  • Discovery & Planning

    We begin with a focused discovery session to understand your current billing and/or contact center environment. We align on transition goals, business processes, and service levels to ensure CustomerAssist meets your operational and customer experience objectives.

  • Transition and Setup

    Our experienced team works alongside yours to transition customer care and billing activities with minimal disruption. We ensure our staff are trained in your utility’s policies, procedures, and systems, so they can serve your customers as an extension of your team.

  • Soft Launch & Validation

    We test workflows, identify gaps, and validate service performance to ensure quality, consistency, and customer readiness.

  • Go-Live & Continuous Optimization

    Our team handles billing, inbound calls, and digital inquiries, while AI supports fast and accurate self-service. We provide ongoing reporting, quality assurance, and performance tuning to ensure your service levels are met or exceeded.

Flexible Services to Meet Your Needs

Our managed services are tailored for single or multi-commodity utilities and designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing business operations. Each solution is customized to meet your needs, and we can offer as much or as little support as you require.

  • Billing Operations
    • Billing verifications
    • Batch processing and tracking
    • Final billing processing
    • E-billing services
    • Exception management
  • Administration
    • Managing customer forms
    • New account setups and transfers
    • Processing pre-authorized payment (PAP) applications
    • Validating forms and resolving exceptions
  • Payment Processing
    • Online and mail payment processing
    • Credit, debit and digital wallet payments
    • Pre-authorized plan enrollment
  • Collections
    • CIS account delinquency at all stages
    • Automated reminder calls and notices
    • Payment arrangements
    • Disconnection and reconnection cycles
  • Contact Center
    • Inbound customer correspondence and call handling
    • 24/7 overflow support
    • Voicemail management
    • Moves, billing inquiries, and general customer requests
    • AI-powered automation with intelligent routing, personalization, and chatbot capabilities
    • Monthly reporting on utility customer interactions
  • Testing
    • Comprehensive test planning, execution, and defect tracking for CIS upgrades, new functionalities, or configuration changes
    • Test script development and maintenance to improve testing efficiency and reduce manual effort in recurring test cycles
  • Training and Documentation
    • Customized training programs for staff across all roles, including system navigation, workflow execution, and customer service best practices
    • User manuals, process guides, training materials, and documentation tailored to your system setup and business processes

Case Study

“The City is now supported by a dedicated team of Util-Assist utility billing professionals, ensuring that the City is never left short-handed. City personnel are alleviated from the demanding and time-consuming complexities of managing utility billing, and the City’s utility desk is again able to focus on core utility business and customer service.”

4 services

Electric, water, sewer, and waste billing

3,000+ customers

End-to-end billing support

Frequently Asked Questions

Most small to mid-sized utilities would typically require a dedicated billing team of 5 to10 staff members. With CustomerAssist’s shared services model, our experienced team supports multiple utilities at once. This allows us to deliver consistent, high-quality service with fewer dedicated resources. The result is significantly reduced staffing costs without compromising service levels.

CustomerAssist supports billing and customer service for a wide range of commodities, including electricity, water, sewer, stormwater, gas, and HVAC. We also manage other miscellaneous utility types. Our team is well-equipped to handle complex billing scenarios across multiple service types.

CustomerAssist partners with leading enterprise-class CIS providers. Through an Application Service Provider (ASP) model, we deliver advanced CIS capabilities via a secure hosted environment. This approach gives even the smallest utilities access to the same modern, cloud-based technology used by large utilities, without the need to manage infrastructure or assume additional risk.

CustomerAssist currently supports over 250,000 end-user accounts across various utility types. We provide a full range of back-office services- from complete turnkey services to hosted-only IT solutions – tailored to meet each utility’s specific needs.

AI-powered automation helps contact centers respond more quickly, reduce routine workloads, and enhance the overall customer experience. Tools like chatbots and intelligent routing handle common inquiries, connect customers to the right agents, and personalize service based on previous interactions

Unlock Hidden Value in Your CIS

Get a free one-day utilization review of any three NorthStar CIS processes. You will receive actionable insights to help you identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and maximize the value of your existing investment.