This month`s Industry Insight is a continuation of the previous edition in which I looked at e-billing tips from the trenches. The first looked at maximising the impact of the e-bill when it arrives in the e-mail inbox by paying attention to 'from` and 'reply` addresses, the subject line and the naming convention used for the bill attachment. It also mentioned avoiding commonly used spam words, and how to get the best read-rate on marketing messages.
The electronic world offers billers a whole new set of tools to enhance the impact of the most regular communication between a customer and a supplier, namely the bill. The trick is to know which qualities to leverage and which to avoid in order to make the e-billing experience a positive one for customers.
The first benefit of the online billing process is customer choice. In the physical world, a bill is typed or printed onto paper and put in an envelope. There hasn`t been much experimentation in sending invoices on another physical medium, such as fabric or plastic, as paper is the cheapest, most efficient physical material on which to communicate the amount the customer owes.
When going electronic, there are many ways in which to present a bill, and e-billing allows the customer to be offered a choice. Bills sent by e-mail can be in PDF format for exact printing, HTML format for interactivity, or data format for spreadsheet manipulation. Customer choice is one of the key benefits of electronic billing.
Either offer the customer the option of selecting a preferred bill format (which means holding this preference indicator somewhere in the system), or send all customers all of the formats.
When going electronic, there are many ways in which to present a bill, and e-billing allows the customer to be offered a choice.
Alison Treadaway, MD of Striata
Each file format mentioned has specific strengths that promote specific usage. PDF is a graphic format, it presents well and prints perfectly, but it is complicated to build interactivity into a PDF. On the other side, HTML allows a high level of interaction (sorting, graphing, selecting), but doesn`t print all that well. Data formats are ideal for companies that need to upload transaction data into their own systems for accounting or reconciliation purposes.
Sending all of the formats in one bill package may be the simplest method, but it will not be suitable for corporate customers with large bills. The total size of the e-mail bill needs to be managed so that companies don`t send enormous files to customers who don`t have the bandwidth to receive them.
A total e-mail bill size of 500Kb is generally acceptable for corporate customers, while for consumers, a maximum bill size of 200Kb should be the target.
If opting to create a functionally rich, multi-format e-bill, navigation becomes a key consideration in ensuring customers understand and use the e-bill to its full potential. Pertinent information should not be more than two or three clicks away from the starting point. Don`t hide information down a long line of logical, but superfluous, click-throughs, as this will confuse and irritate customers, and result in unnecessary calls to the customer helpline.
The best way to ensure easy navigation through the bill is to apply sensible online design guidelines, just as when designing a Web site. Include a landing page in the bill, from which the customer can reach all the elements of the bill easily and quickly. Don`t forget to provide a 'Back` button, so that they can always find their way back to the starting point.
If convinced that an interactive, multi-format e-bill is the way to go, the bill management process needs to include steps to ensure the e-bill and print bill are aligned. In order to leverage the flexibility that electronic billing can offer, the e-bill and print bill should not be exactly the same. Rather ensure a common design thread through both, and when one is updated, remember to update the other.
This does add an extra process in maintaining bill templates, but the benefit to the customer far outweighs the additional work for the biller. Ultimately, companies want to get the bill to customers in a format they like and understand, so that they can effect payment as quickly and easily as possible.
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