The journey towards full convergence is one of the most challenging business decisions faced by service providers today - it is a complicated and lengthy process. What is clear, however, is the end result: a single bill (paper and/or web) for all products and services. The innovative Amdocs Unified Bill solution provides operators with a quick, inexpensive interim solution to their convergence needs.
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I once had a web site called e-statements.com. It was the late 1990’s, when the dot-com bubble was a couple of years shy from bursting. The buzz in the transaction document industry was Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP), which meant many things to many people. The hype was that companies substitute their nasty paper statements with snazzy web-pages containing all the customer billing information. Here we are, 10 years later and the take-up rate for electronic statements has only reached the low teens. So what happened? Read the rest of this entry »
“We’re the ‘I don’t care’ generation, remember? We don’t care as much about paying bills. Give us colour and bigger fonts. The amount due and due date should be big with colour and be the most noticeable thing on the statement - that’s the only thing we read.”
Quote from a typical young adult.
Marketing departments love demographics; especially age demographics. They analyze the lifestyles and buying habits of age-groups to maximize both product and promotion. Although the North American baby-boomer (to be discussed in a future blog) has been the dominant cohort for a half-century, their offspring have become a major force in the current retail market. This is especially true in the telecommunication industry.
When it comes to customer statements, I noticed that the three young adults in my life have a very different perspective. They rarely open bank statements and other transaction documents sent to them. When they do, they have difficulty understanding what they are trying to communicate. This results in over-due cellular or credit card payments. This led me to do a bit of research within the industry to find out if I have a handle on this.
How many times have you re-focused your eyes, squinting to make out the charges on a restaurant check, or to read the confirmation number on a credit card? It happens to me all the time. My favorite example is my Costco card (Figure 1). Imagine having to transcribe that number onto an online order. If you look extremely close, you will notice that the numbers 6, 8, 5 and 3 in the typeface chosen look similar, making them hard to distinguish. Ironically, if you look at the numbers embossed on a credit card, you’ll notice that they are highly differentiated.
Clients are having the same problems with many statements. Considering that only mathematicians and programmers have a natural knack for reading arrays of numbers, most people need as much visual differentiation as possible (Figure 2). When clients can’t decipher the details, their minds start questioning both the data presented and the professionalism of the organization involved.
With over 140,000 commercially available typefaces, I don’t know why designers continue to choose typefaces with numbers that can be easily misinterpreted by
consumers. I personally believe that many typefaces
are never tested for readability within tables. 
In the previous post I listed two technological improvements that impact the way customer statements are produced: super fast color printing, and sophisticated statement design software. Coupled with enhancements in the information available to statement designers about their audience; improvements in delivery tracking technology, and a heightened appreciation within service provider organizations of the statement as a marketing engine, a major change in the statement production chain is finally possible.
For years, service organizations believed that account statements have little real value and are required as a necessary evil of business. However, after 25 years of relatively the same technology and attitude, the statement production environment is about to radically change.
Five tools have come together to modify the way in which we produce client statements: ultra high-speed variable color printing (+1,000 pages per minute), object-oriented document formatting, sophisticated recipient intelligence, and automated delivery tracking. To complement the technology, marketing and product management executives have recognized that the statement is there only point of contact with the customer each month. Individually, the five factors provide some change but together they create a dramatically more valuable statement.
On a dreary, hot and humid day last week, I picked my mail as usual from the mailbox, threw it on the kitchen’s table and boringly sifted through it while chewing on an apple. Electricity bill, utilities bill, a touch of direct mail, something from the bank, my cellular bill, a reminder from the dentist. YAWN.
If our universe was indeed interconnected, as in the world of Douglas Adams’ holistic detective Dirk Gently, then some marketing guy responsible for customer communications in my communication service provider’s headquarters should have sat up in his chair,at that exact moment, as if slapped on the wrist. He just wasted a chance to speak to ME, his valued long time customer, and tell me how much he values my longtimeliness. Or how much he wants me to learn about his company’s exciting new promotions, or about the ways I could save a little bit of cash on my next month’s bill by choosing a slightly more personalized monthly price plan.
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