Why I love and hate HSBC

When I moved to the UK I needed to open a bank account. So began a rigmarole that circled back into a catch 22 situation; you can't rent a property without a bank account and you can't open an account without a local address.

Bank after bank transferred my call to different departments; none of which could assist me in opening an account until I had formally arrived in the UK and lived at one address for more than a month.

HSBC rescued me with a limited function account that I could open with just a passport. I still needed to go to a branch to complete the paperwork, but I could evade the circular reference of not yet having a fixed address.

Falling in love with HSBC

But this is where I started to fall in love with my bank – the branch manager needed authorisation on the process and came down to meet me – I explained that I was moving to the UK and from that point on she took away all the bureaucracy and red tape. I communicated by email, scanned documents and as soon as I had a permanent address, my accounts were automatically converted to standard accounts without the limitations.

People often say that when dealing with their banks, they have just become a number. They call distant call centres and don't have access to a traditional bank manager. I guess this is true in many instances – banks have to be efficient and maintaining high touch, personal relationships is expensive.

I guess it depends on your branch, the manager and your circumstances, however I love HSBC.

The balance of love-hate

But I'm incredibly frustrated at the amount of paper that my bank produces. I hate that they say, "Go Green", but then send me paper for every transaction. I admit that I am not a 'run of the mill' client – but every foreign transfer into my account results in a letter confirming the funds. Every change of terms and conditions results in a small forest being sent through the mail.

I realise that the Royal Mail needs the work – but there are far more convenient ways to do this – secure electronic document delivery is no longer a black art.

Hands up everyone that would rather receive most of their post in an email ? Countless studies have shown that consumers, SMEs and businesses prefer email to paper.

Come on HSBC – put my email address as my primary contact point and just email it.


Michael Wright
Global CEO
www.striata.com

The World Cup of eBilling

With all eyes on South Africa as the Football World Cup moves into top gear, the buzz in our Johannesburg office is spreading to our global offices, even as far as here in Hong Kong! And it’s got me thinking - what it would take to win the eBilling World Cup if there was such a thing? Who would you need in your team and what game plan/strategies will work best?

The defence is in the delivery
Well, you won’t even reach the second round if you don’t have a strong defence. For eBilling, we’re defending against the customer’s resistance to accept change. So, the fundamental requirement is to deliver the invoice or statement information to the customers in a clear, concise manner quickly and conveniently. But be warned - making the customer remember new id/password combinations and search a portal for this month’s bill is a definite own-goal!

Fancy footwork, like one-click payment, adds sparkle!
Once we’ve got a good, strong defence in place, we can move on to the mid-field. This is where a bit of fancy footwork and showboating is allowed, adding a bit of sparkle to the game and giving the punter more than they were expecting. Personalized eMarketing shows the customer that you really know what their needs are. Link-tracking feeds back into this - like a half-time locker room pep talk - ensuring the team learns from experience and plays better, game after game. One-click payment from within a PDF eBill will have the fans cheering! Update forms keep track of any team-changes. And if you’re looking for really flashy footwork, then why not use ‘Flash’ to slice and dice data and create dynamic user-defined graphs, giving the fans exactly what they want!

Paper turn off scores the winning goal...
To win the game, you need strikers to get you goals! And the goal for any eBilling solution is paper-turn-off , which provides both environmental and financial benefits . Registration-free sign-up and creative adoption strategies are key here. Look to the professional strikers; 97% of customers who start receiving Striata’s eBills end up turning off paper – each one like a ball in the back of the net! Now there’s a strike rate that even Cristiano Ronaldo would be proud of!

So, while Striata’s office football team may never trouble Brazil or Spain on the pitch, it may just be that we have the Ultimate Team for the inaugural eBilling World Cup.

What is your paper turn off ‘strike rate’?

Keith Russell
Sales Director, Asia Pacific
www.striata.com

Do you expect eBilling to be inconvenient?

This is a tidied up transcript from actual customer call to Striata Support in the USA in May of 2010:

Striata Support: "Thank you for calling Striata Support, this is Glenn, to whom am I speaking?"
Customer: "This is Diane Hughes"

Striata Support: "Good morning Ms.Hughes, how may I assist you today?"
Diane Hughes: "I received an email from my local utility asking me to sign up to get my utility bill electronically. I cannot however see where to do so?"

Striata Support: "Ms. Hughes, can you see the button in the body of the email that says "One-Click Signup""
Diane Hughes: "Yes, I can see that."

Striata Support: "Did you click it yet?"
Diane Hughes: "Yes I did. I got a pop up telling me that I was now enrolled in eBilling and that I would get my next bill electronically. But I didn't choose any username & password yet?"

Striata Support: "Yes that is correct. There is no username & password to choose. There is also no website to visit. Your next bill will arrive as a secure attachment to a personalized email from your local utility. You will be able to open it by simply entering the last four digits of your social security number. Once you have done that, you will be looking at a digital replica of your paper bill. Simple as that. You can also open it on an email enabled mobile device."
Diane Hughes: "So I don't have to go to any website, it just arrives?"

Striata Support: "That is correct ma'am."
Diane Hughes: "Ok, so how do I pay it?"

Striata Support: "Ms.Hughes, can you see an attachment to the email you are looking at?"
Diane Hughes: "Yes I can, it's a PDF?"

Striata Support: "Great, please open that and look at the first page."
Diane Hughes: "Ok, I have it."

Striata Support: "Can you see the payment form?"
Diane Hughes: "Yes I can."

Striata Support: "Great, so when your first bill arrives, you will simply enter your checking account and routing number into those fields. You only have to do this once. From then on it will be pre-filled out for you but hashed out for security purposes. So from month 2 it's as easy as opening the PDF with one click, checking that you are comfortable that the amount due is correct, and then you can pay with just one more click."

Diane Hughes: "So I pay from within the PDF? Is there no website I have to go and login to?"
Striata Support: "No ma'am, it's as simple as just two clicks, no website to visit at all. Your full bill detail is also included in the PDF along with any other information that used to be in the paper envelope."

Diane Hughes: "Ok, that really is easy, thank you, I understand. Are you sure I don't have to register somewhere?"
Striata Support: "Yes Ms.Hughes, we have purposefully removed any need to register, choose and remember usernames & passwords, or link back to any website, to make it easy for you."

Diane Hughes: "I see that, that is really easy."
Striata Support: "Have I answered all your questions today?"

Diane Hughes: "Yes, thank you, that is clear to me now. I didn't think it could be so easy but I see that it is."
Striata Support: "Thank you for calling Striata Ms.Hughes, we hope you have a wonderful day."

Diane Hughes: "Thank you, you too Glenn."

Garin Toren
Chief Operating Officer, America
www.striata.com