The Opportunity
Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (MDU) was created in 1924 to serve the small farm communities on the border between Montana and North Dakota. Since then the company has grown into a large regional energy supplier and a Subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc.
From those humble beginnings has sprung an organization that serves nearly 1.1M customers across more than 168,000 square miles (equal to 5.5% of the continental U.S.). But to meet the billing and payment needs of this expansive customer base, MDU needed to overcome the legacy limitations of its previous provider and drive the adoption of its new offerings.
The Solution
Manager, Customer Programs & Communications, MDU
After an intensive search, MDU ultimately selected the Paymentus billing and payment solution due to its reliability, intuitive customer experience and range of payment options. It got more than expected, however, in the form of CAST, the Paymentus Client Adoption Success Team.
CAST is a complimentary program that offers strategic consultation and marketing expertise for Paymentus clients. For MDU, CAST delivered an omnichannel marketing campaign that included pre- and post-launch communications, FAQs and targeted printed materials (in both English and Spanish).
“I had never seen anything like this program offered before,” said Carmen Goicoechea, Manager, Customer Programs & Communications, MDU. “We had always done in-house campaigns and worried that CAST may not know our needs or our customers’ needs very well. I’m so glad we took the leap because everything was so seamless and effective.”
The mix of marketing materials enabled MDU to optimize its change management process. CAST played a vital role in helping MDU implement marketing strategies that were tightly aligned to the audience, ensuring both effective messaging and the right medium.
The Results
The expanded payment options and optimized user experience, coupled with a CAST-driven pre-launch campaign, delivered immediate adoption of MDU’s new payment channels and customer portal. Within the first three months of its launch, MDU earned:
lift in AutoPay and recurring payments
lift in online payments overall
adoption of digital wallets
MDU expected to receive a large volume of questions and had even dedicated specific staff time to addressing the anticipated inflow of customer questions. Not only was this unnecessary, MDU was happy to report there wasn’t even a queue of customers waiting for answers.
“Our customers knew what to expect and were prepared for launch day. Call volumes didn’t spike, which shows how effective the messaging really was,” said Goicoechea.
For Carmen and her team, Paymentus and CAST felt like a natural extension of their organization. With the immediate adoption exceeding initial expectations, both MDU and Paymentus are excited to continue building on this momentum and continue driving increased customer satisfaction.
