Avista’S Bills Getting A Bit Bulkier Utility Inserts Marketing Material With Its Invoices

Bad Back? Call Avista Corp.

Appliances on the fritz? Call Avista.

Can’t see the Cougar quarterback from the top row of Martin Stadium? Call Avista.

The Spokane utility has begun including inserts in customers’ bills on behalf of local merchants as well as third parties from outside the area.

Marketing Manager Dave Heyamoto said Avista launched the insert program in August after surveying customers to gauge interest in nontraditional services.

The responses showed consumers would buy products through Avista because they trust the company, he said. But they were not very specific about what products they wanted.

Heyamoto said Avista already had some idea as a result of limited sales programs for generators, surge protectors and similar equipment in the wake of the 1996 ice storm.

“There was definitely customer interest,” he said.

But company officials decided those efforts could be better handled by third parties with the warehouses and distribution channels to handle non-utility products, he said.

Also, Heyamoto said, the third parties take all the risk, while paying Avista a royalty on sales.

He said the electrical gear offered through the billing statements is marketed by PSP Produts of Manassas, Va., which also backs a line of appliancerepair warranties.

Other products - including watches, binoculars and lumbar support cushions - are sold by United Marketing Group of Schaumburg, Ill.

Heyamoto said local companies pay a fee for getting promotional material into Avista’s bills. Customers can call the telephone numbers on the inserts to find out more about products and to place orders.

He said mailings can be zoned to go only to the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area, all Eastern Washington and North Idaho customers, or to the entire customer base, including those in southwestern Oregon.

So far, revenues have been modest, he said, adding that accounting for those funds is kept separate from those for electricity and gas sales.

Heyamoto said the utility confirms that the products and the companies selling them are reliable. The company does not want to compromise customer relationships or compete with other outlets for the same products, he said.

R&R Heating and Air Conditioning is among the Spokane companies using the Avista bill inserts.

Outside sales manager Randy Haffner said the program generates calls every day.

“The leads I’m getting I’m doing pretty well with,” he said.

Heyamoto noted Avista, by handling the mailings itself, does not pass on customer names to any of the vendors with whom it works.

Tim Sweeney, a spokesman for the Washington Utility and Transportation Commission, said regulators take a hands-off approach on billing and collection matters.

But he said possible breaches of privacy are a growing concern as utilities compile more information about their ratepayers.

“The customer should be aware that their relationship with their energy company is evolving, and that’s because their energy company is evolving,” he said.

Sweeney noted that the commission itself uses inserts to advise recipients of pending rate hikes. Officials suspect most people simply throw them away, he said.

Heyamoto said revenues from product sales will be only one of the benefits from the inserts.

“In the long-term, we feel it’s going to enhance customer service and loyalty,” he said.