City of Kinston

Products used: Online payments | IVR | Convenience fee model

Kinston’s Assistant City Manager noted that the city was able to accept credit and debit card payments for utility billing over the phone (IVR) and in-person at a kiosk. However, payments could not be made online, and could not be accepted at all for other departments like recreation, police, and fire.

Kinston officials wanted to integrate payment processing into their utility billing software’s web interface to allow customers to pay online, as well as gain the ability to accept payments for other departments in-person or by phone. Kinston turned to CSG Forte for assistance.

Forte’s development team worked with the city of Kinston to get their online and IVR utilities billing up and running, allowing residents to make payments online or via phone.

• Providing value: Kinston utilities customers now have more convenient options for making payments.

• Saving staff time: Processing payments electronically eliminates much of the need for staff to handle cash and checks, reducing bank fees and freeing up time.

Kinston’s Assistant City Manager has enjoyed partnership with CSG Forte, stating that “from planning to implementation to deployment to ongoing usage, the service we have received from Forte has been efficient and responsive. Kinston saw a 41.4% year-over-year growth in the number of transactions processed from 2016 to 2017, with nearly 40,000 transactions in 2017 alone. This data is paired with positive feedback from customers who appreciate how simple it is to make payments after the CSG Forte solution implementation.