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Board weighs incentives, billing and outreach to boost sign-ups for My Water Advisor app
Summary
Staff told the board about low uptake of the My Water Advisor meter app (about 360 accounts signed up of roughly 8,000–10,000 meters) and the board discussed reducing sign-up friction, adding utility-bill messaging, text alerts and a $5 bill credit or prize drawings to increase enrollment.
The board devoted time to increasing customer enrollment in the My Water Advisor metering app and to ways the city might reduce sign-up friction.
Staff member (Speaker 5) said about 360 accounts have signed up for the app out of an estimated 8,000–10,000 meters in the service area and that users have reported the app is "not really user friendly" — particularly for customers with multiple meters who must create separate accounts. Speaker 5 said staff met with the app vendor and discussed adding text-message alerts and simplifying the account-number entry process.
Members proposed several outreach and incentive ideas: including a brief sign-up notice on the utility bill, using neighborhood text blasts for meter areas with new hardware, giving a $5 bill credit for signing up or running monthly prize drawings for smart clocks. Committee members emphasized practical constraints — staff availability to process credits, the need to avoid giving the city responsibility to install devices for winners, and variations in meter technology (3G vs 4G meters) that affect how much history users can see.
The board asked staff to circulate guidance on sign-up procedures, to consider workable incentives, and for a staff member (Speaker 7) to send biweekly reminders so members stay on schedule to review outreach results. No formal incentive program was adopted at the meeting.
