Of course it’s a given that we want information on demand and via our preferred communication channel.  It’s all about convenience and the world we live in perpetuates this trend. Delivering a document directly to a customers’ email inbox is certainly high on the ladder of convenience in the world of secure customer communication management. A region that is certainly switched on to this concept is Latin America.

Latin America gets it. So much so that some countries have mandated email delivery of documents as the primary method of communicating with customers about their accounts and balances due.

Check out this list of countries that have adopted this eBilling mandate:

• Brazil
• Mexico
• Chile
• Argentina

Several others like Colombia Ecuador and Costa Rica will soon join this group.

Brazil, Mexico and Chile are considered global leaders according to the Billentis’report from February this year.

So why is this the case in Latin America?

The main reason is driven by government interests in managing tax collection on goods sold.  In Brazil however, a primary driver for electronic document delivery is to have an electronic alternative to printing.  While these mandates are primarily for the B2B community, the number of consumer bills sent to Latin Americans far outweighs the B2B numbers and continues to increase annually.  Latin Americans are conditioned to receive all of their important documents via email – while traveling through the region this past month; I was surprised at how many people were shocked to learn that this is not common practice in the US.

5 Ways to get with the program:

First, commit to communicating effectively with your customers by delivering documents directly to their email inboxes.  Then, identify a solution that reduces enrollment barriers and is easy and convenient for your customers to adopt. This can be done by:

1. Eliminating the registration process and necessity for yet another password to remember
2. Making the consent process as simple as one click
3. Delivering the document directly to their email inbox each month
4. Delivering an eDocument that can be read on any device
5. For eBilling – providing electronic payment capability directly in the eBill

Latin America is the leader in electronic document delivery and this deserves our attention, so let’s take a lesson from them.