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.

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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.

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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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