Why would you segment your eStatement client base?

Too many companies assume that when a product is universal, it must appeal to everyone and the same message, sent to all recipients should be enough to convince them to sign up.

Not so.

Even in the niche space of eBilling (versus the broad spectrum of eMarketing), there is still value in profiling your clients, as it allows them to choose how they wish to experience your service. Sending the identical communication to everyone in a client base is inadvisable.

Engagement Marketing

A concept that has recently grabbed my attention is ‘Engagement Marketing’. Essentially, how do you market to a client base in a way that holds their attention and keeps them loyal to your brand?

Meeting your customers' needs is at the core of engagement marketing and the best way to know what your clients’ needs are, is to ask them - individually.

It is important to engage with your customers in a way that gains you maximum loyalty. Remember that adage: “the customer is always right.” If we want to call ourselves engagement marketers, we should take that a step further and say “let customers choose what is right for them.”

Research shows that when customers have the power to choose what they receive, when and how often; they will also choose to maintain a fuller, more enriching and rewarding relationship with you.

eBilling - a great opportunity to engage with your customers

Asking your clients what they want from you in their eBill, enables you to not only open up a dialogue, but also to discover their preferences. To that end, creating and implementing a preference center * will empower your customers and enable you to connect more strongly with them. The more you engage with your clients, the more you can segment your client base and make each of their experiences tailored to their own preferences. Now you’re thinking - that’s going to take forever!

So let’s start small.

Because your eBill is a compulsory monthly communication to your client base, it is an ideal way to find out more about your client using polls and surveys. Firstly you need to find out where each client prefers to read their emails and their eBills. What device do they use; a PC, laptop (netbook), tablet, or phone or smartphone?

Consider your audience

In many developing nations, the majority of mobile Web users are mobile-only: Egypt is highest at 70%, India at 59% and South Africa at 57%. In Africa, 85% of the mobile-only Web users access the Web with a feature phone. Email makes up 46% of the mobile activities for mobile-only users in Africa. It has been predicted that smartphone penetration in South Africa is likely to reach 80% by 2014.

In 2011, it was predicted that over 85% of new handsets would be able to access the mobile Web. Today in the US and Western Europe, 90% of mobile subscribers have an Internet-ready phone.

The time for choice is now

In order to give your clients the option to read their eBill on their mobile device, you will need to hold a preference table of what device each customer prefers. In order to start segmenting your clients according to what they want in their eBill, perhaps you should consider meeting them where they are and on whatever device they prefer!

* A preference centre allows subscribers to tell you how they would like to be communicated with, citing for example, their preferred language, channel (email, text), device (smartphone, tablet, PC).

Simon Johnston
striata.com

eBilling: step into your customers' shoes

When you live and breathe eBilling and eStatements like I do (I know – I need to get a life!), it’s sometimes surprising when you hear other people’s thoughts and expectations on the subject.

I met with a major bank recently, to discuss the option of going paperless with Push eStatements. I found it interesting that the COO’s response was that in these difficult economic times, he was looking for ways to save money – not to spend money. Clearly, we had different views on this!

Few projects will yield a better ROI than paperless billing solutions

Thankfully, he was happy to set up a meeting, and I brought him around to my way of thinking by presenting some realistic projected ROI and implementation figures. The fact is that there are few projects that will yield a better ROI than paperless billing solutions.

This particular bank is also currently planning to upgrade their Internet Banking Portal, including a facility for customers to download PDF statements. Being a much larger project with longer timescales, the COO – still looking forward to the quick implementation and ROI of our solution – suggested that the email eStatement project could be a “tactical” solution until their Internet Banking portal was up and running.

So, I asked him if he would then stop the simple process of distributing eStatements to customer inboxes when his customers could:

• go to his website...
• dig out their ID/Password...
• get their security token...
• log on to the Internet Banking Portal...
• navigate to the eStatement history page and...
• download a PDF?

Needless to say, the meeting soon got back on track!

Most customers prefer receiving their bills by email - it's a fact!

But don’t just take my word for it. Independent research that shows three times as many people prefer eBills/eStatements to be delivered to their Inbox, rather than be displayed on a website - requiring passwords and navigation to find it.

Deliver an enhanced customer experience and watch your adoption skyrocket!

I therefore suggest that when considering introducing or enhancing a paperless process, don’t be constrained by the “we’ve always done it that way” kind of thinking. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and ask how you can make it so convenient and such a great experience that you’d never want to see a paper bill again. How could you facilitate payments? What about including graphs that show spending trends or interactive bill data that can be sorted at will? Think about all the ways you could encourage your customers to engage with you. And if you want some good ideas, just get in touch with Striata and we’ll show you some cool stuff!

And look out for a future blog on “Implementing eStatements for a major bank in Asia Pacific"....

Keith Russell
striata.com

eBilling adoption rates - What's a realistic goal for 2012?

As an eBilling practitioner, the bad news is that you are probably falling short of your target numbers. The good news is that it’s not your fault - but this may not prevent you from getting the axe.

Board level expectations of 15% eBilling adoption per annum are normal. In today’s connected society where we are online more than offline and 'going green' is on everyone’s agenda, turning off paper for the majority of customers within 5 years should be a reasonable expectation.

What is preventing eBilling from achieving significant customer adoption?

Realistically, allowing for a quarter of your client base to stick to paper for various reasons, the goal should be 75% customer adoption and paper turn off.

While it is true that poor craftsmen blame their tools, you may have a valid case to point at your portal model as the reason for missing your adoption targets.

Portals (or Pull eBilling) are only one part of a comprehensive eBilling strategy. Globally, approximately only 17% of customers are perfectly happy to go back to the biller’s website or a consolidator to fetch their bills – but these customers aren’t the majority of the base. The majority will choose to do nothing.

This is where email billing (or Push eBilling) comes to the fore. Armed with your customers email addresses, you can send secure bills or statements without requiring customers to register and choose a username and password. This puts the power of customer adoption in your hands. Customers that receive their bill by email can’t resist opening it - this allows the biller to turn off the paper.

How to achieve a customer adoption rate exceeding 15% pa

Across all industries, the average annual paperless adoption rate falls below 10% and the most common point of failure is the registration process. By including an electronic consent form in the eBilling process, you have a sure-fire way of driving customer adoption over 15% pa. The eConsent process presents the terms & conditions and an agreement to turn off the paper.

Striata customers are routinely achieving adoption rates that are double their industry averages this way.

Striata provides services and strategies to many well known utility brands, by assisting them implement email billing as part of their paperless strategy. These clients are successfully using Striata solutions to replace paper intensive processes with electronic bill presentment and payment and as a result, are seeing a surge in electronic payments and paperless adoption.

What is a realistic paperless goal?

A fully functionally document distribution strategy should have the 3 P’s – Print Pull and Push.

Print may never go away, so expect 25% of your base to cling onto paper.

Pull Portals should be good for another 25% of customers in the long run but at least half of these may want paper as well as a backup.

Push email document delivery will quickly turn off paper for the other 50% of your customers without massive marketing and incentive spend.

Executives are not setting ridiculous success targets. Annual double digit growth is reasonable, but you need the right tools to deliver the right results. Find out how.

Michael Wright
striata.com