Customer's don't really want bills...

Well, of course, customer's don't want bills - who really wants a bill? But this blog isn't about customers who would rather get free services, this is about whether customers want to receive bills or if they're just happy to pay each month.

Over on Billing Views as part of an ETIS community gathering in Budapest, one service provider said that their customers didn't really want bills. 

Taken aback by the comment he was then asked to clarify the statement. 
He responded with;

"Absolutely, of course consumers do not want bills anymore. It is too much trouble. What they want is to look at their bank statement. If the amount is about what they expected, they are happy. If it is different they want to pick up the phone."

This got me thinking... when was the last time that I actually, properly, looked at a bill? I receive both electronic bills and 'traditional' paper bills. But I don't ever read them. The paper bills go in a pile awaiting the inevitable, but often delayed, shredding and the electronic bills (an email telling me to check the bill portal on their website) usually gets opened and ignored. 

Why don't I check my bills? because I check my bank account, I have an account for my bills. I know what I put in each month and I know how much my respeqctive payments cost me each month. Just as the operators said, if there's something wrong - the amount isn't right - i'll check it out and if necessary pick up the phone.. but 9 times out of 10 i'm not interested. 

So how did they come to this realisation? 

A fluke apparently. Customers (for the most part) were notified that their bills were ready to view via text message and email. Typically bill related calls to the company's call centres are quite high, one day the text messages didn't fire to let customers know that their bill was ready and the number of calls about bills dropped dramatically "the percentage of calls about billing was virtually zero" - someone from Customer Relations brought the drop in calls to someones attention and they found out that the texts didn't trigger. 

"Customers only think about the bill when they are told about the bill. Very very few call us to say they haven't received a bill" 

With how easy it is to manage and track your banking and billing via online and mobile banking nowadays it's easy to see how this is the case. So should companies stop sending bills? What about the 'retail space' that comes with bills? the chance for cross-sells and up-sells? Irrelevant apparently. 

"A bill will always have a negative impact" It's a reminder that there's more money leaving your account. Bills are never nice, apart from that one I had from my energy supplier that said I'd saved up quite a bit of credit and they were dropping my monthly charge as a result - but how often does that happen?

As we move further and further into the digital, it's very rare now to find a customer who doesn't have an email account - typically an older customer - so who needs to spend time crafting the space on a bill to sell something to a customer who is disinclined to view the bill in the first place. Send them an email instead it has less negativity attached to it, and there's more space for the offers and incentives. 

Are there problems with this? 

Sure, some people don't check their bank accounts routinely or regularly, so there's a risk that a problem will build up over time resulting in a very negative experience for the customer, but I would hazard a guess that if they don't check their bank account regularly then they're not likely to check their bills either and the situation is likely to occur either way. 

What about customers' whose bill vary month on month? (fixed line and mobile, i'm looking at you) well, there could be a variable limit before a bill is triggered. Maybe 5% or £5 off the baseline monthly charge amount will trigger a bill to inform them of a deviation from their normal monthly charge.

By and large however, I'm seeing benefits - Bill related calls to the call centre virtually zero? A reduction in calls means less money spent on call centres. A reduction in the number of physical bill and text message prompts sent out means less money spent (and it's greener) and informing a customer of when they're bill is abnormal instead of reminding them of their charges each month looks proactive and procustomer - which is never a bad thing. 

An interesting proposal, with some merit by the looks of it. Will it become the norm? hopefully. 


Written by Craig Maxwell-Brown Business Development Associate at CoralTree Systems