Thursday, July 29, 2010

eBills on the move

I'm trying to get my head around whether customers want to view eBills on their mobiles.

"Of course, why not?" is the obvious answer, but when you consider the question from different angles, the perspective becomes murky.

Coming, ready or not

In some developing countries, there is 10 times the number of mobile accounts than Internet accounts. If you read no further, this information alone confirms that an essential process like billing needs to cater for the growing market segment reachable only by mobile.

We can't assume all mobile users are Internet-enabled, but my Google research tells me that by 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide (Gartner).

Are you PC, mobile or both?

I'm excluding business to business invoicing from this deliberation, as I'm fairly confident that the creditor's clerk is working on a PC, not checking invoices on the fly between grocery shopping and gym class.

With the spotlight firmly on consumers, where does the personal bill recipient want to view their bill?

In the absence of thorough and expensive research (if I was operating on that level, this would be a thesis, not a blog), I offer my perspective, with an open invitation to offer yours.

1. Consumers want choice.
  • Yesterday, they viewed their bill on their work PC and paid via Internet Banking.

  • Today they checked the Payment Due information via their Blackberry and paid through mobile banking.

  • Tomorrow they may switch to an iPhone, and expect to view eBills there too.
2. What customers don't want is hassle.

Customers avoid unnecessary effort at all costs. The general public is not interested in the development dilemma inherent in diverse mobile operating systems. The fact that a bill might be viewable on PC email, but not on mobile email is incomprehensible to the average Joe. It is just expected that as the market adds a channel, so the service provider must seamlessly integrate that channel into all communication processes.

What we need is an eBilling offering that works on PC email and across mobile operating systems. Is there such a thing?

The answer is yes, and it's murky with opportunity!

Alison Treadaway
www.striata.com

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

iPhones for Everyone, eBilling for the Masses

No sooner have I blogged about Apple being a model of innovation and so focused on the consumer, than their latest (and greatest?) product, the iPhone 4 is hit by "Antenna-gate". I personally believe that this minor blip on the radar will have little effect on consumers' desire to own an iPhone. In my mind, the biggest limitation on iPhone sales is their decision to restrict the number of wireless providers that offer it. In the US, AT&T has the only license.

Why all the barriers?

Owning an iPhone sounds great, but switching mobile phone carriers requires a fair amount of effort and is often met with considerable resistance.
  • There is a perception that switching means a whole lot of work – everything is going to change.

  • There is risk – what if I don't love the service? Can I switch back?

  • You may have had a bad experience with AT&T in the past.

  • "I just worked out how to understand my current bill and now everything is going to change".
What does any of this have to do with eBilling?

Getting rid of paper bills sounds great, but switching to eBilling has traditionally required a fair amount of effort from the consumer and as a result, has been met with resistance.
  • In most instances, the old online billing model requires a whole lot of work. You have to proactively log-on to the biller's website, find out where and how to sign-up, choose and remember a username and password, as well as provide a whole lot of other information in order to make the switch to paperless billing.

  • There is a degree of risk. It's often not clear how you can switch back if you hate their eBilling service.

  • You may have had a bad experience with eBilling in the past – forgotten your username / password, or used an online billing portal with so many steps that it was more hassle than what it was worth.

  • Very often, the online bill looks nothing like the paper version and it's difficult to print or download a copy for your records.

eBilling is probably nowhere near as sexy as using an iPhone, but there is certainly appeal as more and more "technology savvy" consumers adopt the solution each day.

Meet your consumers WHERE THEY ARE.

If all wireless carriers offered the iPhone, there is no doubt in my mind that the stocks of all other phone manufacturers would plummet. More importantly, by making it more accessible, the number of iPhone users would go through the roof.

In eBilling terms, the key to maximizing adoption is to meet consumers in their comfort zone - their email inbox.

Why force consumers to come to your portal – and then make them go through a complex sign-up process, just so that they can replace their paper bill with an electronic copy?

Receiving an encrypted PDF bill in your inbox that looks exactly like the paper version and that also has a secure PAY NOW button in it, is so much easier than receiving a paper copy and then heading to internet banking to pay or writing out a cheque. But the most critical factor is not to force consumers to switch everything they do in order to adopt this (not so new) technology.

Striata's proven no-registration methodology means eBilling is accessible to everyone with an email address, not just the technology savvy consumers that are prepared to jump through all the hoops to make the switch.

Are you ready to make the switch?

Barrie Arnold
VP of Sales, America
www.striata.com

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

What Paperless Adoption Rates Can I Realistically Expect?

The case for eBilling (also known as paperless billing) has been
described as 'compelling.' Then again, take-up rates have been described
as disappointing. Despite the many arguments for eBilling, the real
problem with mass adoption is customer reluctance to change, despite the
idea that eBilling saves the environment and saves money.

The definition of eBilling Adoption Rates is the number of customers that
request an electronic bill instead of a paper bill. If you have 100,000
customers and 20,000 of your customers request an electronic bill
instead of a paper bill that means you have achieved a 20% adoption
rate. The higher your adoption rate, the better the cost savings
achieved, since total eBilling costs are typically 50%-80% lower than
traditional mail.

There are six clear reasons why consumers do not turn off their paper bill:
  1. Customer indifference: Doing nothing is the path of least resistance.

  2. Enrolment: Registering at each website is a painful process.

  3. Multiple biller sites: Too much effort to remember each process.

  4. Convenience: Fetching my bill is less convenient than receiving it.

  5. Presentment vs. payment: I can see what I owe, now how do I pay?

  6. Mobile matters: I need to see more than just a summary.
From these reasons, it is clear that consumers are searching for convenience in their already hectic lifestyles, and so, the easier we can make their eBilling transition, the higher the adoption rates we'll achieve.

What methods do you use to achieve high adoption rates?


The most important consideration is not what technology is implemented, but how the consumer is treated during the conversion journey. Here are some considerations:
  • Rollout Strategy: Develop detailed rollout strategies to ensure the desired adoption rate is achieved. This includes deciding on an opt-in or opt-out approach, whether to offer incentives or impose penalties and how to handle exceptions.

  • Understand Your Customer Base: Carefully review the demographics of your customer base: What percentage are over 50 years old? What percentage of your customers use online banking and how does this compare to industry averages? What percentage of your customers live in rural areas? Understanding your base is critical to developing effective rollout campaigns.

  • Consumer Education: It's important to agree internally WHY electronic billing is to be implemented. An environmental argument only has legs if it doesn't only address saving the rainforests, since paper generally comes from sustainable forests. Instead, address the fact that the paper industry is a major source of toxic chemical pollution, especially toxic solvents and chlorine compounds used to bleach and delignify pulp (The process of removing lignin – an organic substance binding the cells – from wood or non-wood fibres).

  • Utilize all Existing Print Correspondence: The most effective way to spread the paperless message is to embed graphical marketing within your printed statements and on envelopes. This is very cost effective and has great results.

  • In-Person Interactions: An employee/customer rewards program for signing up for electronic statements is a great way to get results. A few banners, posters, and employee buttons are all it takes to make this a great success.
In Conclusion:

There really is no simple answer to the question of what adoption rate can be expected when embarking on an eBilling campaign. In Striata's global experience across financial services, telco's and utilities, the average adoption rate for an online eBilling solution seems to plateau at between 7% and 12% over a 3-year period. However many of our clients are achieving adoption rates double, triple and even quadruple these figures in certain instances. The higher adoption rates are directly related to the ease of use for the consumer.

For more detail on how we simplify your customers' lives, please see The eBilling 'Push' Advantage .

Michael Haupt
Managing Director, Europe
www.striata.com

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Email marketing is a specialisation

It amazes me that I still receive email marketing from large organizations with basic errors. How is it that they ignore well-documented research and experience about how consumers read and interact with an email?

In the past week I have received emails that may as well be posters, because they are one big image, emails with the logo at the bottom of the template, calls to action hidden within text and at the bottom of the email and subject lines that give no indication of content.

So I ask the question... are these organisations embarking on self-service email marketing without the crucial knowledge around what works? Or is this a case of believing that above the line marketing is unchangeable when it comes to online? Either way, this is a massive error on the part of these organisations.

Debunking some myths
  • MYTH: We have the software, so it’s just a matter of sending an email to our database

    FACT: Anyone can send out an email, however, there are basic principles that need to be adhered to: from testing the HTML in various email environments to see how it renders, monitoring deliverability, creative layout for best results to consistent reporting to improve results. If you don’t have the experts on hand to help out, you could be failing at one or more of these points.

  • MYTH: Our logo must always appear at the bottom of any communication as that is part of our CI

    FACT: Simply put, if you look at your web-site you’ll notice that the logo is placed at the top. Email is no different. People read from the top to the bottom when it comes to online pages and as such, your branding should always appear at the top.

  • MYTH: We need to keep the same creative we have used in our print direct marketing campaigns

    FACT: Keeping the creative identical to your direct mail pack is a mistake. Consumers react differently to email therefore the way an email is designed and laid-out is crucial to meeting the goals of the campaign. Rather aim to keep creative elements and adapt them to email best practice.
Why does this matter?
The biggest reason this matters is that our communications are a critical tool in building a community with our subscribers. And unlike smaller communities which are inherently more personal; large organizations cannot simply rely on the good will of their subscriber base.

Email marketing as a discipline has been around for the better part of 10 years and its evolution is largely due to testing, reporting and customer interaction. The discipline is still evolving as consumer behaviour, and how they engage, keeps adapting to the online world. You need to keep abreast of these trends and monitor reports to constantly improve your communication.

If your communications become a burden, a hassle or a complication to consumers, they will switch you off, by unsubscribing, marking your email as junk, complaining or simply ignoring all future emails. And the quickest way to make your emails such a burden to your customers is to ignore basic, well-documented best practices, learned through years of hard knocks.

Ultimately, handling your own email marketing without the assistance of real experts – whether they be hired into your own organization or hired as outside service providers – is detrimental to your communication strategy as a whole.

If you’ve recently ‘switched off’ a supplier’s email I’d love to hear your reasons...

Mia Papanicolaou
Head of eMarketing
www.striata.com