E-billing and e-statements: Are you listening to your customers?

'Voice of the Customer' research shows that e-mail bill and e-mail statement delivery is the top consumer choice for electronic delivery.

During February 2011, Striata conducted a direct consumer survey in order to answer one critical question: “How would you most prefer to electronically receive your house bills and bank statements?”

Striata Chief Operating Officer Garin Toren says: "This survey was targeted at a very specific group of consumers: economically active businesspeople from the age of 35 to 54 with broadband Internet access - exactly the consumers who should be paperless today.

Currently, the vast majority (in excess of 75%) are still getting all of their bills and statements in the physical mail. However, 55% to 75% of these same consumers are paying their bills electronically. Our goal was to find out why they are still relying on paper mail.

The answer we received was very specific - billers and banks are simply not offering them what they want.”

Responses were limited to five options, which were randomised in order:

* Within my Internet banking
* At a consolidator Web site
* As a simple attachment to an e-mail
* At each biller/bank's Web site
* None of these, I want paper

The survey received 650 uniquely identifiable responses and respondents were required to register or be registered in order to vote. As can be seen in the demographic breakdown below, the majority of respondents fall into the targeted age group.

At the close of the survey, the majority of respondents chose e-mail delivery of bills and statements. Similarly, in a late 2010 report published by InfoTrends: 'The future of electronic presentment & payment in North America', e-mail delivery topped the consumers' vote for electronic channel preference, at 46%.

The results of this latest consumer survey were then compared to a similar Striata survey carried out in 2008. As can be seen by the graph below, the trend toward e-mail delivery remains unchanged.

In all three surveys the message from the consumer is consistent: e-mail delivery for bills and statements is their first choice, with a further interest to receive a copy in their Internet banking. The options for registering at a biller Web site or consolidator Web site to fetch these documents remain the most unpopular choices.

Toren says: “Respondents to the 2011 survey were also encouraged to comment on their vote and we found the most common reason cited for reluctance to sign up for customer self-service options is the associated registration and login requirements. The popular choice for e-mail delivery provides convenience and familiarity.”

With these consistent messages coming from the consumer in favour of e-mail delivery, how do billers and financial institutions satisfy their drive for Website based self-service?

Toren explains that the answer is not to tie paper suppression to self-service portals or Internet banking registration, but to focus on migrating customers from paper to electronic delivery by offering the delivery choices they want.

“Billers have a significant challenge both currently and escalating, in that the trend is moving away from electronic payment at their own Websites, to payments originating through the consumers' Internet banking. As bill payment was the primary reason they registered and visited a biller's site in the first place, this consistent trend is going to have an adverse effect on Web site usage. In addition, it is far less convenient viewing your bill at the biller's Web site, compared to the two seconds it takes to open the paper envelope, so there is just no meaningful incentive to do so,” says Toren.

If payments are going through Internet banking and paper is the preferred bill viewing option, how do banks and billers achieve both paper suppression and self-service portal usage?

Toren explains that by providing a comprehensive solution utilising e-mail delivery, traffic to self-serve portals can be maximised. Because no registration is required for e-mail delivery, paperless adoption numbers are much higher than industry averages of 8% to 15%. The attached bill or statement can then include multiple personalised, intelligent links, banners, buttons and inserts that drive the customer to banks or billers Web sites for self-service, up- and cross-sell.

"The benefits of customer self-service at a reduced cost are undeniable, yet statistics show that in the past 10 years, North American consumers agreeing to turn off the paper bills and statements have stagnated at less than 25%. Nacha recently published a report that indicated this figure is not expected to increase in 2011.

The overall industry average is closer to 18%. Only when billers begin to give customers what they actually want - the true convenience of electronic delivery - will the majority of them go paperless," concludes Toren.

Your customer has spoken. Are you listening?