Arlington Water Utilities employees work to make sure residents have a positive experience whether they're signing up for new service, getting new water lines on their street, or paying their monthly balance. Later this year, the department will begin several new initiatives to enhance customer service and provide more ways for residents to manage their water use.

The upgrades include:

• A new online tool available by fall will allow customers with AMI meters to access daily water usage information, as well monitor and pay their bills, directly from their City of Arlington online account. About half of the water meters in Arlington are equipped with AMI, or advanced metering infrastructure, units. AMI allows meters to be read remotely and more frequently than traditional meters. In the next few years, all city water meters will be converted to AMI technology. To view their daily use information, customers must be registered with the city's online system by going to www.arlintontx.gov/wateronline.
• An upgrade to the city's Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system will let customers get previous billing and payment information, as well as information on their next billing cycle, through the automated phone system. They will also be able to make payment arrangements within set parameters through the phone system.
• A billing system upgrade completed later this summer will allow water department customer care and business services staff to work more efficiently in the department's work order management system. The updated software also has better integration with City of Arlington financial software and enhances web security by requiring strong passwords from customers.

Arlington Water Utilities will keep customers updated on the availability of the new features with postings on the website at www.arlingtontx.gov/water and through social media, including the NextDoor application. Follow Arlington Water on Facebook at www.facebook.com/arlingtonwater, or on Twitter by searching for @ArlingtonWater.

Earlier this year, Arlington Water began automatically sending emails to account holders with on-file email addresses to alert them when their water service is interrupted by emergency or planned repairs. In addition, a new webpage with up-to-date water outage information has been added to the City of Arlington website. Visit www.arlingtontx.gov/wateroutages view the new page.

To be notified via email of water service interruptions in your area, Water Utilities account holders can register their email address with the online billing system by visiting www.arlingtontx.gov/wateronline, or call Arlington Water Utilities at 817-275-5931 and ask to add an email address to your water account.

For water emergencies, including main breaks, call 817-459-5900 24 hours a day/seven days a week.