Member Service Tips

By Heather Juzenas, Vice President of Marketing & Member Services

When it comes to member service, we work hard to show you the cooperative difference. Simply put, we exist to serve you. Our Marketing and Member Services department interacts with members every day, and we value that connection. We greet you at the drive thru, process your payments, answer your phone calls, prepare your bills, respond to your messages and much more. I asked our team to share their best tips to help you take control of your Energy Cooperative account.

The best tip I can give you is to use the knowledge and expertise within our team. Contact us when you have questions about your bill or energy use. That is why we are here.

What we want our members to know:

Cierra: We appreciate you! Everyone at The Energy Cooperative works hard to bring our 69,000+ members safe, reliable and affordable energy with exceptional member service.

Beth: Space heating, space cooling and water heating are the largest energy expenses in any home. You will also see your bill go up when you use pools and aquariums.

Donna: Always include your account number on checks when sending in your monthly payment. This is especially important when your bank sends the check to us.

Christy: We own and operate a 456-panel solar farm at our Utica Service Center. Electric members can subscribe to a certain number of available panels, and we calculate the energy produced by those panels into your monthly bill. You get the solar energy. We take care of the maintenance and associated costs.

Nichoal: If you are unable to pay your bill, call us to discuss payment options. We can help you connect with assistance programs or set up a payment arrangement. If we disconnect your service for non-pay, you must re-establish your credit by paying a deposit (in addition to outstanding charges). Avoid this situation by getting on a payment arrangement and sticking with it.

Natasha: The employees watching social media are not the same people who dispatch crews during outages and emergencies. If we have more than five hundred members without power, you will see regular updates on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. You can also see outage updates from our website, myenergycoop.com/outages.

Joe: If you do not see all of your accounts in SmartHub, give us a call. We can help members see all their accounts and easily keep track of payments and energy use for each account.

Lisa: Sometimes it is necessary to estimate energy use on your bill. This can happen if the meter stops sending information to our systems. When we estimate bills, we charge based on the same amount of energy used last year during the same month.

Morgan A.: If you have more than one meter, you have more than one account. It is also important to remember your account number changes when you move to a new address.

Ashlynn: When using the drive thru, do not get out of your vehicle. This is for your safety. Also, when paying your bill with cash, please put the dollars and coins in an envelope.

Morgan P.: We record all our phone calls and cannot take payments over the phone due to PCI compliance rules. Instead, we transfer members to our online payment system or help you set up autopay from our website.

Karen: Propane members with a meter need send us a current reading and tank percentage every month even when they are not using propane.