Billing is the life-blood of any entity that makes profits from charging customers for products, services or utilities. Surprisingly, 60% to 70% of all calls taken by call centres are complaints directly related to the billing process.
In highly competitive markets besieged by churn, consumer retention and customer satisfaction are the holy grails of business. A recent South African survey focused on customer service showed that billing dissatisfaction is the number one customer complaint across industries. The survey quoted ranked the biggest issues handled by call centres in the banking, insurance, telecommunications and retail sectors in this country.
Customer dissatisfaction with billing is a trend that is mirrored internationally, but high volume billers in the US and European markets are responding to the threat by implementing systems that help customers self-service their billing issues quickly, smartly and efficiently online. The increasingly strategic role of billing and the surge in e-billing is being driven by:
* The growing recognition of the strategic role that billing plays both in terms of contributing toward profitability and customer retention.
* The need for accurate and timely billing to avoid disputes and increase confidence and trust in the billing process.
* Flexibility of billing systems to accommodate changing business requirements.
* The need to use billing as a competitive differentiator - the presentment of billing information is increasingly used by companies as a competitive-edge and a means of setting themselves apart from other players in highly competitive markets.
* The significant and rapid ROI that e-billing offers enterprise.
Locally, the e-billing market is poised for significant growth with financial services, utilities and telecommunications organisations leading the way. `Billing - A Strategic Business Tool` will look at best practice from leading companies together with key strategic information that will give you important insights into billing and e-billing as a strategic imperative for your organisation. This will include the latest information on local and international billing trends, applications and successful integrations.
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