Austin Energy manages the City of Austin Utility Contact Center and Online Customer Care Portal. This is the place customers go to start, stop or transfer utility services.

This data set displays the number of households benefiting from Customer Assistance Program (CAP) for each fiscal year.

The City of Austin has one of the most generous Customer Assistance Programs in the nation. Utility bill discounts are a key component of the program. Discounts are provided to customers who are already receiving benefits through a variety of federal, state, county, or city assistance programs.

Under the program, qualifying Austin Energy customers receive a waiver of the $10 monthly electric customer charge; are exempt from paying the portion of the community benefit charge that supports the Utility Bill Discount Program; and receive a 10% discount on their kWh usage charge.

Austin Water customers also receive a discount on the water/wastewater customer charge as well as a volumetric discount on a customer’s water usage. Watershed Protection provides a 50% discount on the drainage fee. Public Works under a separate qualification waives the transportation user fee.

This dataset supports measure EOA.G.4 of SD23

Data Source: Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing (CCB) System

View more details and insights related to this measure on the story page: https://data.austintexas.gov/stories/s/g4mj-r352

The average speed for answering calls was up in Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 due to Customer Service Representatives focusing on one-call resolutions, thus avoiding repeat calls by customers. In addition, the Utility Contact Center has rolled out several campaign initiatives over the past few years to promote conservation programs. Explaining those products and benefits takes extra time.