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| Newsflash
#5 |
25th January
2005 | |
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An essential component of any email based billing
project is the necessity to gather and maintain an
accurate, current database of your customer's email
addresses. In today's article we will look at 'tried and
tested', cost effective strategies to achieve this.
Please continue to forward this to whomever you
think would find it of interest. Thank you.
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"Gathering your customer's email
address."
The challenge is how to get, keep &
maintain an accurate database of your
customer's email addresses. Over the past five
years we have worked extensively with all of our
customers on this process and would like to take
this opportunity to share some of our experiences
with you.
First of all, it is very
important at every instance and in
whatever medium, when asking a customer for his
email address, that you:
- Tell them why you are asking for it.
- Give the assurance that the email address
will only be used for the purpose of commercial
billing and other communication from your
company.
- That they will have multiple ways to opt-out
(unsubscribe) at any stage.
- That your company follows strict 'permission
marketing' principles.
- That their address will NEVER be divulged or
sold to any third party.
It is a good
practice to create a concise 'easy to understand'
script for use by all staff gathering email
addresses.
The Process
| Step #1
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Compile a strategy. Write a detailed plan
on how you intend to go about getting these
email addresses and keeping them
current.
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| Step #2 |
Establish all the existing live touch
points with your customers that give you the
opportunity to ask for the email address. These
may include:
- New customers
- Change of address / when a customer moves
- Customer detail updates
- Customers who call into your customer
service centers
- Email queries (A reply can be automated to
request this)
- Outbound customer calls
- Any existing email marketing activities
- Any existing print marketing campaigns
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| Step #3 |
Apply some sort of cleaning script or
application to your existing database of email
addresses; this will clean up obvious errors
such as @yahoo.net or @hotmail.org. Then
establish the cleanliness of your current email
addresses by sending out a well worded plain
text email advising customers of the new bill
offering, what it entails, and the assurances
above. Delete all the consistently undeliverable
email addresses from your
database.
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| Step #4 |
Here
are a list of ways that you can obtain the email
addresses of your customers going forward:
- Action the 8 live customer touch points
detailed above. This will be the most effective
& lowest cost method of obtaining email
addresses, and will go a long way to growing
your base significantly. You should be able to
gather over 40% of your customer's email
addresses over a one year period, just by doing
this.
- Create an opt-in to email communication
location on your website's homepage.
- Create banners throughout your site linking
to this opt-in page.
- Bill stuffers & Bill envelope
advertising: A good idea is to offer vouchers /
discounts from local restaurants and other
vendors in your community to customers that have
supplied you with their email details. The
vendors will appreciate the free advertising and
the incentives will therefore not be a direct
cost to you.
- If your community is suitable, then drop
boxes & cards in convenient community
locations are a great method: Supermarkets, post
offices, schools etc. Combining this with a
competition is an added way of increasing
volume.
| Maintaining & Growing your
Email Database
It is
important to maintain the integrity of your email
addresses and grow this base wherever possible. We
recommend the following:
- If an email comes back undelivered, attempt
to update the details as soon as possible by
creating workflow to your contact center. You
can initiate an automated outbound call or send
a letter to the customer.
- The Striata Application Platform also allows
for an automated wireless text message (SMS) to
be delivered to the customer, requesting their
updated email address. We have found this to be
particularly successful and cost effective.
- Every undeliverable bill must also initiate
a paper bill to be posted to the customer
immediately.
- Incentivise all staff to continually update
customer records with email addresses.
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Come and
see us in New Orleans at the EUCI Billing for
Utilities Conference
For
more information go here
or contact Ashley Baptiste.
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| Thank you for taking the time to
read our Newsletter. We trust you find it of value. Do
not hesitate to contact us if there is a specific topic
that you would like us to cover in future issues.
Regards
Garin
Toren
Chief Operating Officer
Striata
Inc.
messaging
innovation | | |
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Editorial: 48 Wall Street, Suite 1100, New York,
NY, 10005. Visit our Press Office here
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