5 FEATURES OF UTILITY ebilling

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1 5 FEATURES OF UTILITY ebilling THAT DRIVE PAPERLESS ADOPTION In a 2011 survey by NACHA, more than 74% of municipal utilities identified ebill adoption as a significant opportunity for their organization. Challenged by an average adoption rate of only 12.7%, municipal utilities have responded to their customer s initial reservations about going paperless, leading to a 40.1% increase in the rate of ebill adoption this year. 100 American Metro Boulevard, Suite 150 Hamilton, NJ sales@billtrust.com

2 IN THIS REPORT THE FACTS 15.1% vs 3.6% average ebill adoption of residential accounts for municipal utilities [1]. PART 1 The five most common objections customers have to going paperless. PART 2 How to address customer objections with specific features of your ebilling service. 70% average savings created by sending an ebill instead of a paper statement. 1,811,275 trees could be saved if 20% of American households switched from paper to electronic bills and payments [2]. 48% of municipal utilities neglect to promote the green benefits when promoting ebilling to customers [3]. 1* Q11: Percent ebills (Unweighted) Billing Benchmarking Study Results Summary, p9 NACHA s Council for Electronic Billing and Payment 2/2/11. 2* Payitgreen.org 3* Q40: How effective has Green messaging been and do you plan to incorporate environmental messaging in your future communications and marketing for ebilling? Billing Benchmarking Study Results Summary, p26 NACHA s Council for Electronic Billing and Payment 2/2/11.

3 THE FIVE MOST COMMON OBJECTIONS TO EBILLING By learning why our customers may object to going paperless, we can identify how ebilling can overcome their concerns and introduce them to the benefits they seek. I will miss the payment deadline if I do not have a paper bill sitting on the counter to remind me. Going online to view my bill and make a payment will be more difficult than it is now. How will I know my payment information is secure? How will I know what I am paying for if I do not receive my paper bill? What if the notification goes to my spam folder? Relative Importance Low Moderate High

4 THE 5 FEATURES THAT DRIVE ADOPTION 1. Payment Flexibility I will miss the payment deadline if I do not have the paper bill sitting on the counter to remind me. There are several ways that utilities can improce the timeliness of customer payments with the right ebilling system. The best way to do this is to provide customers with the ability to schedule payments to be made on or before the due date. The ideal ebillling soultion will also: Send multiple pamyents reminders before a bill becomes past due Enable customers to set up automatic payments and a dollar threshold that is OK to be without further authorization Accept both credit card and ACH payments from any computer, tablet, and smartphone 2. Easy Account Access Going online to view my bill and make a payment will be more difficult than it is now. Viewing statements and making payments online becomes easier than traditional bill payment for customers when their ebilling service is highly accessible. Highly accessible online billing systems have two characteristics. Online Billing is Accessible Through the Utility s Website If hosted by a third-party, the billing portal should be branded like the utility s website (more than a logo) as customers commonly abandon third-party sites due to lack of trust Customers must be able to link multiple accounts to pay all their bills with a single username Payment due must always reflect the current balance owed (account for any partial payments of late penalties) making the ebilling system more reliable than a paperbill) Notifications Contain Direct Links to Payer Portal URLS contained in the should include the utility s name ( i.e.

5 THE 5 FEATURES THAT DRIVE ADOPTION 3. Security How will I know my payment information is secure? Customers often become comfortable engaging in online billing activities once they learn that their utility is PCI compliant. What is PCI Compliance? Utilities storing or transmitting credit card data must be in compliance with the PCI DSS standards. Many utilities choose to oursouce their ebilling process due to the cost and commitment involved with regular PCI audits which ensure encyrpted transmissions, logical and physical access controls, and activity monitoring. 4. Exact Bill Replicas How will I know what I am paying for if I do not receive my paper bill? If a customer thinks they will receive less information as a result of going paperless, they will not commit to ebilling. Customers that go paperless must receive electronic bill replicas, which: Appear exactly as their paper bill would (including consumption charts and messaging) Include the bill backer (i.e., any verbiage following the first page of the paper bill) Include the same inserts they would otherwise receive in the mail. 5. Maintenance What if the notification goes to my spam folder? If a customer s inbox recieve messages from your ebilling system the first time you send them a notification, their service (e.g. Gmail) will accept mesages sent by your organization everytime thereafter. To verify that an will be received the very first time an ebill is sent, customers must confirm that their service will recieve messages before they are finished enrolling in paperless billing. To accomplish this, your ebilling system should send an automated to the customer to complete the enrollemtn process which contains a link that, when clieck by the customer, confirms the message was received.

6 NEXT STEP To find out more about best practices for automating your invoice-tocash process contact Billtrust at or call Billtrust American Metro Boulevard, Suite 150 Hamilton, NJ Office: Fax: ABOUT BILLTRUST Billtrust is the premier provider of payment cycle management solutions, helping businesses accelerate invoice-to-cash. By integrating the three key areas of the payment cycle: invoice presentment, invoice payment, and cash application, Billtrust is committed to delivering a flexible solution to improve buyer satisfaction and DSO. In 2014, the Billtrust invoice-to-cash solution processed over $250 billion in receivables for leading companies including Kraft Foods, Under Armour, Ryder and CDW. To learn more visit