I just read a great book (I know – how old-fashioned is that?) about Disney customer service – called Be Our Guest.

The main tenet of Disney’s strategy is to under-promise and over-deliver, and to add unexpected value at every opportunity. Examples of this would be that even though the official opening time for Disneyland is 10am, the gates will open 30 minutes early to let guests enter and get ready for the day. Screens saying that the queue for a ride is 20 minutes will always be pessimistic – you’ll actually queue for about 15 minutes. Have afternoon tea in one of Disney’s hotels and you’ll likely meet one of Disney’s Princesses or other characters – free of charge. All just little things that make a visit to a Disney property that much better than you expected it to be. I have to admit to being a bit of a Disney fan (it started with The Jungle Book movie as a small kid), but fan or not, you’d have to try really hard not to enjoy a trip to a Disney theme park. And that’s not just by chance!

So what would happen if Disney did eBilling?

Does your eBilling solution open a magical world of options for your customers?

Taking the fundamental Disney approach to customer service and apply it to eBilling, what would you get? It would be something that exceeded expectations in every area; something beautiful and a pleasure to use; something that made you feel a little bit better about life…

So how does your eBilling compare?

• Is your eBill registration process so simple even Mowgli could do it?
• Is your customer surprised that he can pay conveniently from within the eBill – leading to a reduction in payment delays that would even make Scrooge smile?
• Are there options to schedule future payments or set SMS or email reminders so even Dopey remembers to pay?
• Is your eMarketing tuned in to your customers’ needs, wants, stereotypes and emotions? Does it match like Cinderella and her glass slipper, or clash like Shrek and Donkey?

Basically, does your eBill surprise and delight your customers each month?

Or is it a Hammer House of Horrors Production?

Sadly, many eBilling solutions out there are far from user-friendly. The need to tick the eBilling box means that some solutions don’t take the customer’s view into consideration. Here are some traps to watch out for:

• Is the registration process tortuous?
• Is there a painful trip to a web portal each month to view the bill?
• Is the eBill an electronic clone of the paper bill – zero value add?
• Do your customers live in fear of a phishing attack?
• Is your paper billing process a monster that just won’t die?

Any of the above is reason enough for the customer to do nothing and keep the paper bill.

Just Add Magic

So while receiving an eBill might never match a visit to Disneyland, if you’d like your eBills to be sprinkled with a little pixie dust so they open a magical world of options and make your customers smile – don’t call Disney , call Striata!