Converting from Paper Bills to an Online Billing System
Today, many companies are getting pressure to convert their traditional paper billing systems to online billing systems for many reasons. Whether it be environmentalism, convenience (or inconvenience of sifting through hundreds of pages of bills), or to acquire the added functionality available with online bill presentment, the trend is consistently leaning toward eBilling.
In addition to the above advantages to online billing, there are some other advantages that you might not have considered. For example, with many online bill presentment software packages you can advertise on the online bill. Online bill presentment will also drive traffic to your website, increasing customer awareness. And finally, all bill presentment can be specifically branded for your company as if there were no outsourced billing system, as if it were your internal system itself. Free marketing to your existing customer base provides a significant revenue opportunity to those customers that are already loyal to your company.
For the end user, there are some advantages that you might not have considered as well. Bills are delivered directly to the person that will be handling them – whereas paper bills usually are sent to a general mail box and are delayed in being delivered to the person responsible for processing them. This processing person can also look forward to immediate updates, trending analysis, and monitors that can keep them on top of their bill usage rather than having to backtrack when the bill finally arrives. No more sifting through hundreds of pages of bills…eBilling make bill processing easy and efficient.
Some companies have found transitioning from paper to online billing a daunting task. The providers might have trouble converting some of their business customers to online billing either because they have a current process that includes paper billing or they see no real benefit in switching. Some providers have taken the approach that they will put all customers on online billing and then charge those customers that require a paper bill a small nominal fee for the cost of printing the bill. This works if your customer base is largely comprised of customers that are already convinced to switch to online billing, but could cause some issues if the bulk of your customers are not on board.
Other providers have taken the approach to convert a segment of their customer base to their online billing system. Then, they provide case studies and success stories to the late adopters to try to persuade them to change over. When you are able to provide real numbers as to dollars saved, efficiencies achieved, etc. in real customers on this particular system, it can have some pull in convincing customers to switch over.
The biggest issue, by far, is convincing business customers to educate themselves on the system and think outside their normal processes. It is easy to get bogged down in day-to-day activities, making it far more difficult to see the big picture. It is difficult to see how this new system could save time and money. It just seems like a gimmick to save the service provider money, but the fact is that, in the end, it will save the business customer time and money as well. So, the biggest obstacle in online billing adoption is convincing business customers to learn how to use the product and then to try to think outside their current processes to find a way to incorporate this new software in a manner that can actually benefit them in the long run.
In addition to the above advantages to online billing, there are some other advantages that you might not have considered. For example, with many online bill presentment software packages you can advertise on the online bill. Online bill presentment will also drive traffic to your website, increasing customer awareness. And finally, all bill presentment can be specifically branded for your company as if there were no outsourced billing system, as if it were your internal system itself. Free marketing to your existing customer base provides a significant revenue opportunity to those customers that are already loyal to your company.
For the end user, there are some advantages that you might not have considered as well. Bills are delivered directly to the person that will be handling them – whereas paper bills usually are sent to a general mail box and are delayed in being delivered to the person responsible for processing them. This processing person can also look forward to immediate updates, trending analysis, and monitors that can keep them on top of their bill usage rather than having to backtrack when the bill finally arrives. No more sifting through hundreds of pages of bills…eBilling make bill processing easy and efficient.
Some companies have found transitioning from paper to online billing a daunting task. The providers might have trouble converting some of their business customers to online billing either because they have a current process that includes paper billing or they see no real benefit in switching. Some providers have taken the approach that they will put all customers on online billing and then charge those customers that require a paper bill a small nominal fee for the cost of printing the bill. This works if your customer base is largely comprised of customers that are already convinced to switch to online billing, but could cause some issues if the bulk of your customers are not on board.
Other providers have taken the approach to convert a segment of their customer base to their online billing system. Then, they provide case studies and success stories to the late adopters to try to persuade them to change over. When you are able to provide real numbers as to dollars saved, efficiencies achieved, etc. in real customers on this particular system, it can have some pull in convincing customers to switch over.
The biggest issue, by far, is convincing business customers to educate themselves on the system and think outside their normal processes. It is easy to get bogged down in day-to-day activities, making it far more difficult to see the big picture. It is difficult to see how this new system could save time and money. It just seems like a gimmick to save the service provider money, but the fact is that, in the end, it will save the business customer time and money as well. So, the biggest obstacle in online billing adoption is convincing business customers to learn how to use the product and then to try to think outside their current processes to find a way to incorporate this new software in a manner that can actually benefit them in the long run.
posted by CTI Group at
10:07 AM 
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