The 5-Minute Bill: 2026 Redesign Insights and Preferences

In this episode of Experience Better, guest host Erind Shkurti is joined by KUBRA experts Sara Small and Matt DeLaRosa to explore findings from the new 2026 Bill Redesign Insights and Preferences Report. Together, they unpack how today’s consumers interact with their utility bills, what information they value most, and why utilities are increasingly rethinking the customer experience behind both print and digital billing. From surprising insights about how little time customers actually spend reviewing their bills to the growing demand for clearer usage information and simpler layouts, the conversation reveals what utilities need to prioritize to keep customers informed and engaged. 

Listen to the full podcast episode or read the detailed transcript below. 

Episode Transcript:

The transcript has been edited for clarity and readability while maintaining the original content and intent of the speakers.

Erind Shkurti: 

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Experience Better, the CX podcast brought to you by KUBRA, where we explore the ideas, the research, and real world strategies that shape how billers connect with the people that they serve. 

I'm your guest host, Erind Shkurti. I'm a Senior Director of Client Solutions here at KUBRA. In my role, I work closely with our utility clients every day, helping them solve real challenges around billing, payments, and customer communications. And one of the questions we hear a lot at KUBRA is how do we make our bill better? Well, that question is exactly what today's episode is all about, and I'm thrilled to have two KUBRA experts in the room to help me answer it. 

So first, we have Sara Small. Sara is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Billing and Payments. Sarah is behind the research that we're going to be digging into today, which gives us a fresh and data-driven look at what consumers actually want to see on their utility bill. Sara, thanks for being here.

Sara Small: 

Thanks, Erind. I'm excited to share some interesting data with you today.

Erind: 

Awesome. Looking forward to that. And on the other side, we've got Matt DeLaRosa joining us. Matt is KUBRA's Senior Graphic Designer. Matt brings the visual side of all of this to life. When clients are ready to redesign their bills, Matt is the one translating consumer preferences and data insights into real and tangible design decisions. Matt, it's great to have you as well.

Matt DeLaRosa: 

I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Erind: 

Okay. So today, we're taking a look at findings from the 2026 Billing Design Insights and Preferences Report, which is fresh research that tells us who's reading the utility bills, what your customers care about, what's frustrating them, and what a smarter design could mean for both your customers and your organization. So with that, let's dig right into it.

So Sara and Matt, as you may have noticed, we're living in a world where many of us set up autopay and never look twice. You can think of streaming, subscriptions, bank statements. I'm curious whether utility bills are actually any different. So, Sara, I'll start with you. What does this research show us? And why are we seeing so many utilities start to take a harder look at how their bill is designed?

Are Customers Actually Reading Their Utility Bills? 

Sara: 

So the reality is that even with AutoPay and other digital tools, consumers are still receiving their bills and statements. About 69% receive them by email and surprisingly 58% still receive them by paper. We know that while there is a clear shift to digital tools and engagement, there still remains quite a significant opportunity to connect with consumers through that bill, both the digital and the paper versions. 77% of paper consumers actively review their bill when they open it.

Erind:

Yeah. That number that you just mentioned, Sara, that 77% of paper bill recipients actively review their bill, that seems actually much higher than I expected.

Sara: 

Yeah, it is pretty high. And so my question would be, why aren't all utilities taking a hard look at their bills and how they're designed? There are so many opportunities to boost the customer experience with a bill, reducing inbound calls, driving program adoption, removing confusion around payment. These all can be supported with a bill redesign. At the end of the day, it's worth the investment. 

just another note to add, many consumers today are facing affordability concerns. Household utility costs have risen by over 40% in the last five years. So not everyone has that luxury of setting up AutoPay and not looking at their bills every month. Some consumers need to make hard decisions, and that bill still remains quite important to them.

Erind: 

Yeah. And honestly, Sara, this may go even beyond affordability, and it may eventually come down to also having a sense of control. When you think of a payment obligation that can vary month over month, which is very typical in the utility space, I personally, as a user, would actually want to see what I'm paying before I pay. And that can especially be true if you're talking about programs such as AutoPay that may not necessarily have guardrails or thresholds that can cap the max amount that can go towards the payment. So I can certainly see the tendency there that people would probably want to see their bill before they engage in any of the programs like AutoPay, for instance. So that's really interesting. 

Okay. So, Matt, as the person responsible for our client bill designs here at KUBRA, you've probably seen more utility bills than most people ever will. We know that utilities generally want to serve their customers well. So why do so many bills still fall short? What do you see when a client first brings their utility bill to the table? And are there patterns you're seeing in the client's print and digital bills from a design perspective?

What Good Bill Design Actually Solves 

Matt: 

Yes. A lot of the problems utilities are trying to solve center on customers' understanding of their bills. Sometimes it's about confusing rate structures. Sometimes they just want to know why their bill seems higher than they think it should be. This can lead to an uptick in call volume and a lower overall satisfaction rate. Good design can alleviate some of that frustration by making the information on the bill approachable and easier to understand. 

For example, I recently worked on a redesign project for a client that covered two states. They had a lot of different payment agreement programs that required specific language from their respective regulatory boards. The client informed me that a large number of their customer service calls were related to confusion around those programs. So during the redesign, we took the opportunity to reexamine how these things were displayed. We removed redundancies, added context, resulting in a more concise, clearer layout.

Erind: 

Okay. So, Sara, we've established that bill design matters and that it's often overdue for a refresh. I want to ask you about something in the research that I think will really surprise our listeners. When it comes to how much time consumers actually spend with their bills, what did you find?

Sara: 

So five minutes. 75% of consumers said that they spend five minutes or less reviewing their bill. And 17% said even less, just one minute. That's all they give their bill. So in those five minutes, only 38% said they can immediately find what they need. 50% of consumers find themselves scanning for key information, and nearly one in ten said that they often feel confused when they open their bill. 

Presenting a bill that's easy to navigate and understand goes much further than just convenience for the customer. It builds trust between the utility and the customer. When a customer has a strong relationship and trusts their utility, they're more likely to engage in programs, read the communications, and take action. So it's both to the benefit of themselves as well as the utility.

Erind: 

That's interesting when you say that only 38% of consumers immediately find what they need, which seems surprisingly low, especially since we've established that 77% actively review their bill. That gap seems quite large, Sara.

Sara: 

Absolutely. It was surprising to us as well. It's no wonder that only 10% of consumers feel in control when they see their bill. They can't even find what they're searching for right away.

Erind: 

Yeah. That certainly sounds very actionable, and we will be talking about some of that action later in the podcast. But before we get into that, I want to make sure that we understand who we're actually designing for. So, Sara, the report includes some really interesting demographic and channel data. Who responded to the survey, and what does that tell us about the range of customers that utilities need to be thinking about?

Sara: 

Yes. So at KUBRA, we love our research. We do our best to support utilities with the latest consumer data to capture their preferences for billing, payments, and communications. Our recent bill redesign consumer survey, launched in April, received over a thousand responses from primary decision makers in the home across the United States. 

When we filtered down the data by age, there were a few differences, and I'll share some with you. So bill reception by email decreases with age, while reception by physical mail increases with age. Not really a surprise there. The older the demographic, the more likely they are to have that paper bill. So when you're thinking about promoting e-bill adoption, you're going to want to focus on those older generations. 

We also saw a preference to receive utility communications by email, as opposed to inserts or on-bill messaging, and that's pretty consistent across all ages and sits around the 50% mark. So focus on email communications. And then one more stat — I don't want to give too much away before we publish our full report — but it's the 18 to 29 age range that struggles the most with understanding their usage and what they're paying for.

Erind: 

Okay. So we know that customers give five minutes or less, and we know who those customers are. The next question that comes to mind is what should a bill actually do in that window? So, Sara, what does the data tell us about how customers move through a bill and what they're prioritizing?

What Customers Want On Their Bill (And What They Don’t)

Sara: 

So when we approach a bill, the front page is prime real estate, right? So we assess the current layout and determine where we want to place the different fields. It helps to understand what customers are looking for and what elements they find to be distracting. Remember, we only have those five minutes to communicate and drive action. So when we asked consumers which items they value the most on their bill, I wish I had some more exciting insights here, but there weren't many big surprises. 83% agreed amount due was the most important. They want to know how much is due. Bill due date came in next at 63%. So tell me what I owe and when it's due. And then third was usage information at 58%. 

Now on the flip side, we asked what items are less valuable and more of a distraction. These were a little more surprising. 40% said they could do without the different ways to pay. 40% also see little value in the term definitions, and 31% said that assistance programs and those details were not as important to them. So while these are considered not the most important elements, sometimes you can't really get around it, and for many, having some of that information about payment options and assistance availability is still important. So you have to find a good way to manage all of this information.

Erind: 

Yeah. I can definitely see the amount due and the due date being at the top of the list. And really, when you think about that, Sara, at the end of the day, you get a bill because you have an obligation to pay. And if you have to pay, well, guess what? You're going to need an amount due and a due date. 

However, what I find personally interesting is the ways to pay appearing to be more of a distraction. And just from personal experience, whether it's the printed bill or the web, the ways to pay is actually one of the items I usually scan to see if my preferred method of payment is available. My utility — they will go unnamed, I love them very much — but one of the things I do every time I get a bill from them, I'm always scanning: is my preferred method of payment there? And unfortunately, they're not offering that, but it's always one of the first things I look at when scanning my bill monthly. 

Matt: 

So rather than removing these items — and we know that some regulations require the terms and definitions, for example — we find a better place for these items to live. It can be online, and we suggest ways to guide customers to their online resources, or move them to a part of the bill where it's a better fit in the hierarchy of information. 

Erind: 

Yeah. And that brings potentially another element here, Matt, which could be targeted messaging. Take, for example, the data point that Sara mentioned where 31% said that assistance program details were not important to them. Well, you don't need to show everything to everyone. In the case of assistance programs, for example, you could just show that to someone who may have fallen behind in payments, had bounced payments, or met different eligibility criteria. So there's definitely something to be said about targeting. A lot of that can be achieved — and I do this day in, day out with our clients when we code their bills and implement processing rules. Obviously, you've got the data, it's very easy to code that in. But it's certainly a point to think about when designing bills: don't show everything to everybody. 

Sara: 

Absolutely. So if your utility has access to this data, it can make a very big difference in how you can communicate with your customers. A more personalized bill will absolutely have a greater impact on the customer experience.

Erind: 

Yeah. Absolutely, Sara. Okay. So, Matt, I'll switch to you. Hearing Sara talk about what customers value and what distracts them, as a designer, where do you even start? What design decisions are you making to get customers to what they need in those five precious minutes?

Bill Design Strategies for Reducing Cognitive Load

Matt: 

Well, a lot of client bills evolved over decades instead of being intentionally designed. Sometimes we still see bills trying to communicate everything at once, which means customers absorb almost nothing. 44% say important details are scattered throughout, and there's too much on one page. So good design isn't about making it prettier. It's about reducing cognitive load with good use of basic design principles like contrast, flow, and visual hierarchy.

Erind: 

Yeah. And it's very true about the cognitive load. This does not really matter if it's on the printed side or the digital side. And honestly, generally speaking, that is not as top of mind as it should be when you are designing an experience. But we know, and this has been well studied and well documented, that the human brain processes visual information significantly faster than text. So we are visual creatures, and it can certainly help, Matt, as you say, making things more visual and graphical. It can certainly help better and faster parse information and comprehend what's on the bill. That's a really good point. 

Okay. So let's take a look ahead. The report isn't just a snapshot of where things stand today. It's also giving us signal about where customer expectations are heading. So, Sara, what does the data say about what customers are going to want from their bill in the near future?

From Insights to Personalization: Where Bill Design Is Heading 

Sara: 

The trend that we're seeing among utility customers and their preferences is transparency. Customers are no longer satisfied with simple explanations of their charges. They're looking for more context. This shifts our focus as designers to more detailed charts and comparisons. This is the type of information that will elevate a bill experience to feel more personalized. And again, with that personalization comes trust. Usage today compared to last month or last year — 63% of consumers find these to be the most useful. 

But we're also seeing consumers look for deeper comparisons, such as their usage compared to customers with similar properties, or average temperatures and the impact on their usage. These all come from data, so that's the first place to start when utilities are considering moving forward with more transparency in usage.

Erind: 

Yeah. Absolutely, Sara. And I'm thinking this might need to go even further. As in, could the needle move from providing insights to actually taking proactive action? For example, I'll use my utility again — I love them very much. They offer three rate options: time of use, tiered pricing, and overnight pricing. They also offer an informational comparative module on their website that lets you see what your usage from the last billing cycle could have cost you under each tier, which, by the way, is super awesome. I absolutely love that. But when you think about that, you wonder — it's great that you're offering that, but could you just take it one step further? Could you proactively put me on a tier that would cost me less? That's an angle where you take the insight to actual proactive action. And obviously, utilities operate in a heavily regulated environment, so some of that might need user consent. But there could be users like myself who could easily pre-consent to opting into more proactive action. So I think, in this day and age, Sara, with the advent and adoption of AI and analytics, it's very important that we collectively — ourselves and our clients — think about how do we make that leap more effectively from insights to actual proactive action.

Okay. So we are getting close to the end of our conversation. And I want to make sure that every utility professional listening walks away with something very concrete. So Sara and Matt, if someone's listening to this episode on their commute and they're thinking, okay, we need to do something about our bill — what do you want them to remember? And, Matt, I'll start with you first.

Key Takeaways: Where to Start With Your Bill Redesign 

Matt: 

Well, that's easy. A full redesign isn't always necessary. A targeted refresh can really go a long way. Focus areas can include branding alignment, addressing key pain points — for example, 40% of consumers struggle to understand their usage — and ensuring the most critical information is front and center within that five-minute window.

Erind: 

Okay. And Sara?

Sara: 

So a simple, well-designed bill is one of the most effective and lowest-lift customer experience improvements available to utilities and other billers. The impact of a redesign extends to both customer experience and the bottom line. There are postal savings opportunities through smarter layouts and page optimization, and there are opportunities to drive digital adoption with a bill experience that customers prefer and find more personalized and attuned to their needs. I'll also add a bonus takeaway. Simplicity is key. 59% like visual indicators and color-coded sections, but utilities should be working towards simplifying the bill in general. 57% of your customers want a simpler bill layout. And when they open your bill, remember, they only want to spare five minutes.

Erind: 

Yeah. Thanks for those points, Matt and Sara. I'd like to offer one as well. Bill redesign and implementation go hand in hand. So having a vendor who handles both — wink wink, KUBRA — creates a smoother process and a better end result. So for any of our clients listening who may be considering a bill redesign or refresh in the future, definitely reach out to your Client Success Manager to get that conversation started. We would absolutely love to help you out. And for anyone else who wants to go deeper on this topic, we will be publishing the full 2026 Bill Redesign Insights and Preferences Report on our website at www.kubra.com. Stay tuned for that, because what you've heard today is just a sneak peek. Sara and Matt, this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you both for bringing this research to life and for making the topic of bill redesign feel genuinely exciting.

Sara: 

Thank you.

Matt: 

Thanks again for having me.

Erind: 

Okay, everybody. Until next time. I am Erind Shkurti, and this has been Experience Better, the CX podcast by KUBRA.