Three
years ago, when the United Illuminated Company (UI)
launched an Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment
(EBPP) capability, there was no road map for us to follow.
In fact, we were considered a pioneer of sorts and were
guided more by a vision of the future of Internet billing
than by any concrete data on what worked and what didn’t.
But
our EBPP initiative is paying off nicely, especially
since we have expanded our capabilities and deepened
our understanding of the new technology and the role
of e-commerce in the future. And because scores of others
in the industry have yet to take the EBPP plunge, we
are building a formidable competitive edge!
From
the outset we were guided by three goals: to provide
our customers with more convenient or enhanced services;
to lower our costs; and to make progress in transforming
our web site from an “information” orientation
to a true e-commerce site. We’ve achieved or made
significant progress toward achieving all three goals.
More
convenience for customers
Our
customers using the new service tell us they like the
convenience of not having to write checks, or to stamp
and stuff envelopes, and they especially like knowing
their payments are being handled automatically with
virtually no chance for delay or error.
Enrolling
in the service is easy, takes only a few minutes and
involves no more detail than existing automated payment
or pay-by-phone services. The use of account and personal
identification numbers assures confidentiality.
Part
of the credit for the fast and easy sign-up goes to
consumers, who are technologically savvy. But part also
goes to the “crystal clear” sign-up procedures,
worked and reworked by specialists from both UI and
Pitney Bowes docSense, which is hosting our Internet
billing service. The mail and messaging giant also handles
our paper-based billing on an outsourced basis.
Once
enrolled, UI customers merely access their bill on the
Internet, review it for accuracy, and authorize payment,
which is accomplished electronically at the end of every
business day.
We’ve
even bolstered our new service with additional features.
For example, our customers said they wanted a direct
deposit option, which allows them to select in advance
a specific day for automatic payments to be made, and
a variable payment option which allows them to make
multiple payments, to pay in advance, or to vary the
amount paid.
The
variable payment option also allow customers to contribute
to UI’s popular Operation Fuel program, which
provides funding for customers struggling to pay winter
heating bills.
Additionally,
the electronic billing option has been expanded to permit
customers to view their billing history on-line, and
to manage their account data themselves -- for example,
to change e-mail or bank information -- eliminating
the need to call UI’s customer service center.
UI
is adding still more enhancements as we move forward
to make the service more useful to current users and
to attract new ones as well. The service now supports
a single log-in for multiple accounts so, for example,
a landlord can log-in once and pay a multiple number
of tenant accounts. UI also offers a “view only”
option for consumers who already use a “pay-by-phone”
service. These consumers can be alerted to the availability
of their bill via e-mail, so they can view the bill
on-line and then “pay-by-phone” as the have
in the past.
More
cost-effective for UI
Customers
using the EBPP option are also responding to bills faster
than before. In fact, consumers are making payments
an average of nine days sooner! That’s nearly
twice as fast as their response rate using the traditional
or paper-based mail format.
The
central purpose of a billing application is to achieve
prompt payment. Major corporations may invest millions
of dollars in data processing, print and mail finishing,
labor and postage just to get mail out the door so the
improvement achieved by Internet billing is a giant
leap forward.
So
regardless of the other benefits of Internet billing
-- such as the lower cost to distribute bills, the ability
to accelerate delivery to near instantaneous status,
automated handling of payments, and the opportunity
to custom-tailor electronic messages via hot links,
banner ads and attachments -- the acceleration in payment
alone is enough of an incentive for us.
Insight
into consumer behavior
But
other key benefits, which include the opportunity to
learn more about consumer behavior, are significant,
too. We’re using our EBPP capability to learn
more about how consumers interact with web page-based
information, which will help us create a more rewarding
one-to-one relationship with each customer and develop
a more effective e-commerce capability.
For
example, we’ve discovered the majority of consumers
using the Internet billing option tend to make payments
the first time they view their bill. These users seem
to be “action-oriented,” and we’ve
seen very little procrastination or the common practice
of waiting for other bills to arrive before writing
several checks at once.
The
Internet bill users are also an alert, curious and knowledgeable
group of consumers. How do we know? By carefully monitoring
their use of the web site, particularly how customers
access the hot links.
When
we began the pilot, the FAQ (frequently asked questions)
hot link received the greatest number of hits. The next
month, it was the chance to view the previous bill.
When
we introduced an EZ-print option, that became the biggest
hit. And when we merely changed the headline on our
late payment link, more than a third of the users hit
the link to find out more information.
Consumers
using Internet billing also tend to use e-mail to make
follow-up inquiries about the service or other aspects
of their relationship with UI.
Use
of e-mail is quick and easy for them. But it is beneficial
to us as well because it helps lower the work load on
our customer service call center and saves us the cost
of handling “live calls, which can be substantial
for any organization.
A steady rate of acceptance
One
key question remains: Exactly how fast are consumers
migrating to our new Internet billing service? Enrollment
increased 120% last year and we clearly like the trend.
After
the initial test period, we introduced the Internet
billing option with what we call a “soft roll-out.”
The goal was to make sure all systems continued to operate
as expected and to migrate users in an orderly if somewhat
conservative fashion. We used banner ads on our web
site, on our horoscope page, and on regional newspaper
web sites, and issued brief news announcement and special
inserts in our customer bills.
The
systems were up to the task -- as evidenced by the 100%
timeliness achieved by outbound e-mail notifications
and the 99%+ system uptime -- and the “soft”
effort attracted several hundred users in just a few
months.
We
are now managing a more traditional “hard roll-out”
using a mix of traditional and non-traditional techniques.
Our goal is to migrate 5% of customers, which appears
well within reach.
Inserts
are being sent with each bill, stuffers are included
in the daily mailings from the customer service call
center, ads and messages are printed on the conventional
paper-based statement and the rear flap of billing envelopes,
and more banner ads are being posted on regional web
sites.
We’ve also used outdoor billboards along major
highways. Plus, our efforts are being supplemented by
Pitney Bowes docSense marketing experts in the form
of newspaper ads, contests, additional news releases,
articles and news items in the company’s customer
newsletter.
As
consumer adoption of e-billing grows, UI’s customers
will benefit from our significant head start. We have
already added a great deal of functionality to make
the process easier for them. We’ve added features
to make visits to our website of greater value to them.
It’s a win/win scenario, and it doesn’t
get much better than that in a business to consumer
relationship.
About UI
United Illuminating is a regional electrical distribution
utility providing
electricity and energy-related services to more than
318,000 customers in the Greater New Haven and Greater
Bridgeport areas. The company is based in New Haven
and the stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol UIL. For more information, visit www.uinet.com.
The
Right Partner Can Turn the Promise of Internet Billing
into Reality Quickly
“We
were excited by the potential of Internet billing from
the moment we first learned about it,” recalls
Shirley Dion, Senior Manager of Collections for United
Illuminating Company. “But we also wanted to move
quickly and didn’t have the internal resources
to develop or implement the technology.”
The
key was to find a partner that was knowledgeable and
flexible, and could offer UI a “single point of
contact” to ease the task of managing a fast implementation
as well as the continuing flow of enhancements and upgrades.
Since
UI already relied on Pitney Bowes for paper-based billing,
which was handled on an outsourced basis, it seemed
logical to turn to the mail and messaging giant for
Internet billing as well. Which is how UI came to “partner”
with docSense and rely on its innovative Digital Document
Delivery (D3) capability.
D3
is especially beneficial to established firms such as
UI, says Karl Schumacher, president of docSense, because
it enables them to format documents for presentment
to customers via the Internet or alternate channels
"without altering billing and statement production
applications at the mainframe."
And
when coupled with an easy-to-use payment option, D3
enables high volume mailers "to lower the cost
of distributing bills, accelerate their delivery to
near instantaneous status, simplify and speed payments,
and boost the value of the electronic message by tailoring
hot links, banner ads and attachments to specific customer
profiles," he continues.
Another
key benefit of D3 is the ability to assure delivery,
which is an important consideration for firms that must
comply with government regulations concerning prompt
notification.
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