Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment for North American Utilities. |
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Electronic Billing Electronic billing has been a hot topic in the utility sector for the past few years. Unfortunately, adoption rates have been anemic at best. Fewer than 7% of the average utilities customers have adopted this service, out of these - less than half have agreed to paper turn-off. And, the promised reduction in contact centre calls has certainly not materialized. Yet as of January 2006, over 80% of all Americans are accessing the Internet / their email on a regular basis. Why the poor adoption? As long as viewing and paying your utility bill electronically is less convenient than writing a check, consumers will be very reticent to do so. These are some of the main reasons why adoption is so low:
Utilities need to find an electronic billing solution that:
Impossible? No, electronic bill presentment and payment offers all of the above. What is electronic bill presentment and payment? Electronic bill presentment and payment is the strategy and technology whereby a utility sends a securely encrypted digital replica of their paper bill (and all stuffers), directly into the consumers email inbox and offers them one click electronic check payment from within the email bill. How does it work? The path to secure paperless email billing is made up of these few steps: capturing the customer's email address; sending the secure eBill & taking payment; and turning off the paper bill. Getting the customer's email addresses: This is the easiest part of the process as most utilities today have already begun gathering email addresses for various reasons. It is certainly not necessary to incur any cost on this process, simply capture an email address at every customer touch point, such as:
Through these mechanisms alone you should be able to capture a minimum of 30% of your customer's email addresses in less than a year. As soon as an email is captured, a welcome email is immediately and automatically sent to the customer. This email introduces the secure eBilling service, tells the customer when they can expect their first email bill and details all the advantages of this convenient service. (It also serves to validate that the email is accurate.) Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment: Now that you have the customer's email address, have confirmed that it is correct, and have introduced the concept, you can begin to send your secure eBill. The email bill should match your paper bill identically, including any bill stuffers - this familiarity is imperative for paper turn off. The email bill can include multiple payment options:
Note: Due to the push nature of the secure eBill, all aspects of this communication are personalizable, including the subject line, greeting, email body, bill content and related marketing material. This creates a very powerful and ultra cost effective marketing tool. Paper Suppression: Once you have auditable confirmation that the secure eBill / invoice is being opened and used, you have two options:
It is important to note that when surveyed, customer acceptance of the two options above were identical, the difference for you the biller is however massive. Example case studies: Two North American utilities that are in the process of rolling out secure eBilling are: CPS Energy - San Antonio, Texas The nation's largest municipally owned utility is implementing an innovative email invoice / bill presentment & payment project. CPS Energy will utilize Secure PDF and In-Email BillPay technologies to deliver secure electronic invoices and to take payment from their customers. This project will include:
Whitby Hydro, Ontario, Canada Whitby Hydro Energy Corporation will deliver its utility bills using securely encrypted email. This innovative solution will replace the current paper bill, offering a significantly more convenient option for the consumer, as well as dramatically reducing the time and costs of billing for both Whitby and the consumer. In conclusion: Utilities in the USA need to radically rethink their eBilling strategies if significant adoption and paper turn off are ever going to be a reality. Achieving paperless ebilling in excess of 30% of a utilities total customer base is achievable within 24 months, if a combination of push eBill delivery and website based self service is employed.
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