The reality is that average rates of adoption of online billing are stuck somewhere between 4% - 16%, and they are stubbornly refusing to go higher.  If you have ever tried to increase the number of your customers that switch to online billing - you will know how difficult this can be.

Now one of the worlds most respected EBPP Companies has published an approach that is consistently delivering adoption rates of over 40% and in the right circumstances between 68% - 87%. 

We describe how below..

"Why Some Solutions Are Almost Always
More Successful"

Firstly, it is worth briefly reviewing the different models that companies have adopted for their online billing solutions.

	The first, and most popular approach, is to use the company's Website to provide customers with access to their online bills or statements over the internet.
	The second is to send an unsecured attachment, containing (generally) a PDF rendition of the customers bill, to the customer.
	The third, is to send a secure document attachment (generally a secure PDF) containing the customers bill.  The secure document is opened using a pre-arranged security key.
	The fourth is the consolidated billing service provided by some banks that allow customers to view multiple bills from a variety of providers on a single page of their bank's online banking service.

All of these solutions have a common problem - they don't deliver.

In fact the general level of adoption for these types of solution tends to be less than 16% even in situations where a significant effort has been put in to increase online billing numbers. 

Forester Research, Tower Group, Symcor, Chartwell and Deutsche Bank are all unanimous in their results about what customers 'really' want from an online billing solution.  And it is clear that most common online billing solutions don't deliver.

What customers want is:

The strange thing is that most companies that have implemented online billing solutions believe their solutions provide this already.

So why is online billing stuck at 4% - 16%...?

Well the research and proof is unequivocal - people don't want to have to 'fetch' their bills or customer information, they want their information to be delivered to them - in their inbox.  And they want it personalised, they want it secure and they want it safe from people that want to steal their money or identities...

This used to be impossible for companies that have already made an investment in a traditional online billing solution... until Striata created the 'hybrid' eBill.

We describe this below..

"The Size Of The Prize"

The difference between an adoption rate of 16% and 68%-87% can be massive in terms of cost of paper, postage and cost-to-serve.  Just increasing the adoption/switch rate to 40% even for a medium sized biller can mean savings of 100's of £Thousands of pounds per year.

For large scale billers the savings can amount to £Millions of pounds per year.

Most researchers and analysts agree that the savings of online-billing are approximately 80% of the cost of paper and postage.  And in banking Forrester Research estimates that there is around a $30 (slightly less in the UK) cost-to-serve saving per year for every customer that adopts online bill payment.

Our own experience backs this up - with every one of our clients seeing very large savings.  MultiChoice was able to reduce the cost customer billing by around 80%, Absa Bank saved approximately £300,000 on 2Million statements per year and CellC has effectively eliminated paper bills.

In utilities a recent Datamonitor analysis of UK Utilities cost-to-serve identified billing as one of the major factors in cost-to-serve - but not just because of the cost, but also because of the interrelationship between billing and call centre costs.  So savings on billing and paper multiply into savings on total cost-to-serve and customer satisfaction.

"How To Increase Online Billing - The Principles"

Firstly, lets be clear - you can do all of this yourself if you want to.  But solutions like those from Striata now provide you with everything you need with little to no up front investment - whether you have an existing online billing system or not.

The place to start when considering how to increase online billing numbers is to heed the evidence of many EBPP research studies (and in our experience the proof from over 100 eBilling solutions worldwide) - which shows that high adoption rates are achieved by delivering the eBill, statement or customer document directly into the customers inbox.

But NOT in the traditional way (ie. with just HTML email or attachments).  This is not enough - it doesn't deliver the richness of customer experience, security or payment options to deliver high levels of eBilling adoption (or payback to the biller).

What IS proven to deliver is a combination of the three primary EBPP models together, because they are able to provide both the customer and the biller with what they really want.

What does this mean....?

"Three EBPP Models in One"

Customers want their eBills delivered into their inbox².  If they are not delivered in this way, and the customer has to work to fetch or pay their bills, the evidence shows - they don't.  So everyone that knows anything about successful EBPP solutions recommends that you send the eBill, or customer document, directly into your customers inbox. 

But of course if you do this you need to be able to do this very securely, with features that deliver real benefit to both Customer and Biller and in a way that is complementary to the existing online website or online billing solution.

So rather than just forcing the customer to a website or portal, successful online billing solutions have the ability to send everything the customer (and biller) wants directly into the customers inbox.  The Striata solution does this by providing a sophisticated software engine that translates billing data (or other customer or marketing data) straight into a feature-rich customer document, that is in turn placed in a secure (168 bit Tripe DES encrypted) emailable envelope containing its own mini website.

In practice the feature-rich customer document is itself a mini website (embedded in the email envelope) that brings together the three EBPP models.

In doing so, the eBill becomes unphishable, highly secure and offers extensive marketing real-estate.  Which means that the customer is able to keep the amount of work to an absolute minimum, is provided with a highly secure 1 click open and 1 click payment process and is still offered a feature-rich eBill that they want to receive.

This might sound complex - and it used to be - but now, with software engines like those available online from Striata it is no more than a click away.

Everything is there, all you have to do is feed your billing data into the Striata eBilling engine (in almost any form like csv, xml, rss or any in-house format) and you immediately have everything you need to achieve very high levels of online billing adoption and switch from paper.
 

"Switch Strategies"

The final part of any online billing solution is the adoption or switch strategy needed to transition customers away from paper to online billing.  These strategies can make a massive difference to the number and rate at which customers switch and stick with online billing.

And it's here that the Striata solution offers something special - with a unique 7-step adoption strategy that includes everything from opt-in or opt-out strategies, integrated customer transition strategies and more, and with 8 years development behind it, now embraces both the practical and psychological factors that incentivise customers to switch to online billing.

Some solutions can still stall at this point because of the problems of security, spam, junk mail, phishing, payment processing and email deliverability -  but not the Striata solution for two reasons.

1. The solution is inherently not phishable - because there is no website to redirect.

2. The secure eBill envelope is added to a secure delivery platform that ensures delivery through the most aggressive email filters.  With special arrangements with a number of the worlds largest email service providers to guarantee delivery without fear of spam or junk mail.

The combination of these elements proves irresistible for customers, and is proven to deliver very high levels of online billing adoption - generally well over 40% in the switch to online billing, and in the right circumstances between 68% - 87% adoption.
 

"But I've Already Spent Millions"

One of the the biggest problems we find is that people think they are stuck because they have already spent a large amount of money on their current online billing system or customer web portal.

This used to be a problem - but now, if you want to add the features that will really increase your online billing numbers, you can add everything we describe here to your existing online billing system almost at the click of a button.

In fact almost all of this is available with very little work or cost at all - just use what you already have and plug it straight into something like the Striata eBilling engine, apply the latest techniques and psychology of customer adoption and you will have everything you need to increase your online billing rates and know that you will immediately see an increase in your online billing rates.
 

"Generating Increased Income and Sales"

And that's not all, the new generation of eBill and online billing is so much better able to present useful and personalised marketing real-estate. 

Unlike previous online-billing models the customer is automatically presented with the marketing real-estate rather than having to bypass it on route to their billing information or statement.

The opportunities exist to use marketing real estate in the email body itself, in the customer document or in any links back to the home site.  But more importantly the new model provides greater scope for personalisation and measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Again the evidence is strong - in just 1 month a customer of the Striata online billing solution netted an incremental revenue of over $60,000 in the very first month of operation.

So the case for this new generation of online billing is growing stronger every day.
 

"A New Generation of Online Billing"

We need to get a little technical for a moment, because the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and when you take a look at what you are able to achieve with the new generation of online billing solutions you will begin to understand why the main research companies are now recommending these types of online billing solution.
 

"High Adoption Online Billing - Demonstrated"

The Striata solution is easy to implement or demonstrate, either with or without an existing online billing solution.

So you only have to ask and we will show you exactly how to:

	Apply the latest tools and techniques to increase online billing numbers
	Add a 'Three Model' EBPP hybrid eBill to your current solution
	Boost your current online billing numbers from 4% - 16% to over 40%
	Reduce your cost-to-serve and achieve high levels of return and incremental income from the switch away from paper
	Implement an online billing solution that is unphishable.
	Create an eBill that offers really high customer acceptance with rich functionality, eBill navigation, data sort, data print, data extract and marketing real-estate
	Achieve a 1 Click Open, 1 Click Pay Process from within the eBill
	Deliver in-Bill payment, in-Bill update of personal details, and personalisation of marketing real-estate
	Easily deliver eBill Security, Shared-Secret Public/Private Key and an Anti-Phishing solution
	Manage 'deliverability', avoid spamming and blocking
	Develop an effective Online Billing Switch/Adoption Strategy

Or if you would like to see a demonstration of the solution in action please just click here and we will provide you with a fully detailed description and demonstration of how this works - from original billing data through to full customer experience - including integration and co-operation with existing online billing websites and portals.

"What Else Do I Need To Know?"

We provide here a list of other resources that are available to help you increase your online billing numbers:

	Request  a free copy of "Double Your Paper Bill Switch-Off Rate Within 90 days" by clicking here.
	"Speak to an expert" - you can give us a call and we will talk through how you can increase your Online Billing Numbers for free.  Just call us on  0870 199 5610.
	"The Striata Accelerator" is a highly recommended launch-pad as below.

"The Striata Accelerator"

The Striata Accelerator is an offer that will guarantee to increase your adoption rate in 6months by 18%⁴ or you will pay nothing.

In practice - all you have to do is ask for our help and we will do the rest.  We will work with you to set ambitious objectives, we will create the mechanism to achieve high levels of eBilling adoption, we will provide any technology needed to deliver the result and we will work with you using our proven 7 step adoption strategy to ensure that all the objectives are met.

A typical programme is live within 10 - 14 weeks and is delivering incremental online users almost immediately on route to 40%+ or 68% - 87% adoption of eBilling. 

All the work of formatting, securing, transferring, emailing, delivering, tracking, integrating, setting-up payment, handling the communications and delivery - all done for you.

And this is why we know we can deliver for you.

"Outstanding Results"

There is a strong chance that if you have been struggling to increase the number of people that sign-up for your online billing that you will not believe such high numbers.

But these are genuine, proven results and can be achieved by any company that is prepared to consider the solution described here.
 

Here are a few comments from satisfied customer in the 3 main business sectors - Financial Services, Telecommunications and Energy:

More details on any of the above are available on request.
 

"What To Do Next..."
 

Striata is one of the worlds most respected EBPP companies with a proven reputation for delivering high levels of online billing adoption in the most challenging of circumstances.  So all you have to do is request some more information and we guarantee to help you to achieve incremental online-billing numbers.

We can potentially save you many many 100's of thousands (or Millions) of pounds and months and months of work that can be returned straight to the bottom-line.

So if you contact us we will show you how the solution will work, calculate what you will save, estimate what you will gain and show you exactly how will increase your online billing numbers. 

Alternatively just contact Mike Nation at InSearchofSolutions.co.uk for more information.
 

call. 0870 199 5610       mob. 07789 867371     email. mike.nation@insearchofsolutions.co.uk