Utilities Admin: Simple technology to save 85 minutes per tenancy

07 June 2021 36872 Views

As we all know, there is an increasing number of PropTech solutions aiming to service the property and lettings industry, with new companies emerging on an almost weekly basis. From instant valuations, through to CRMs, maintenance tools and tenant onboarding platforms, there’s becoming more and more choice for letting agents to digitalise their business.

And as we move towards a post-COVID world, digitising your business has to be at the forefront of your mind as a letting agent. By using the right technology that enhances your business, you will become more efficient and profitable, but most importantly you will be able to service your clients in a better way.

Here at Billing Better, our mission is to make utilities easier for letting agents and their renters by removing unnecessary and time consuming processes, whilst enhancing the agent and tenant experience.

How can utilities administration be improved through technology?

If you’ve spent time researching utilities management and utility switching platforms, you will have come across a number of different companies whose main purpose is to monetise the tenancy through either a void period switching solution, or by encouraging tenants to switch to a panel of suppliers. Many of these suppliers offer agents a free service, putting pressure on the company to generate revenue from the tenants.

But is this the right approach?

When we built our utilities management platform, we spoke with almost 500 letting agents across the UK. 71% of letting agents told us that reducing the time their teams are spending on tedious utilities administration was more important to them than trying to earn money from their tenants. This feedback and validation led us to build a simple-to-use utilities management platform that focuses on the needs of the letting agent, whilst also offering the tenant a seamless and “non-pushy” utilities set up process.

Here’s some of our key features:

A simple and intuitive platform

The platform is built in a way that allows anyone - technically savvy or not - to manage utilities from a few clicks, in a few minutes, once per week. Our system uses your property and tenancy information to alert you when we need information from you, to allow our software to do the hard work for you.

Utility notifications and meter readings

Our system will always know who the suppliers of your properties are in real time, even if your tenants switch their energy supply. This means that when we need to notify suppliers of a change in occupancy or submit meter readings, our software can do all of the work for you.

This enables you to stop spending time on the phone, sending emails and waiting on live chat to speak with suppliers every time you have a change in occupancy.

Displaying void period bills

Ensuring that void period bills are accurate for you and your landlord is a frustrating task, for often a small bill. Much of the reason why a void bill is inaccurate is because meter readings are not submitted within the correct window.

By using our software, meter readings are sent to the suppliers on time, ensuring that the void period bill is accurate. Once the void bill is generated, it will appear within your account, including a £15 bill credit and 90 days without paying standing charges, meaning you can forward this bill to your landlord or pay it off there and then.

Give your tenants a great moving experience

Each time a new tenancy is created within our system, your tenants will receive a series of three text messages and emails offering three bill set up options:

One monthly payment for all household bills - Powered by Billing Better

Use of a free whole of market comparison site, allowing the tenant to switch, save and find the best deals for gas, electricity, internet and TV.

Sign up for accounts with the existing suppliers of the property - Billing Better notify the tenants of who their existing suppliers are, making it easy for the tenants to get set up.

So, why stick with a process that takes too much time?

Shifting from a process you know can be daunting, even if you know those processes are not the most efficient way of working. Here at Billing Better, we offer a free 90 day trial to let you use our software without any financial commitment. Head to our website below to find out more:

https://billingbetter.co.uk/agents