Is Your Utility Part of Your

Customers Digital Life?

Kim Gaddy, Senior Analyst and Consultant, Intelligent Utility

Bernie Gracy, Vice President of Strategy, Pitney Bowes
Chris Johnson, Vice President & General Manager, Inlet

Your customers digital life

Email
Texting
Day-to-day
Social networking
operations
Messaging
Purchasing/transacting
Bill receipt
Bill payment

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and follow Intelligent Utility on Twitter @IntelUtil

Bill payment trends

The # of checks paid declined >50% since 2000 (from 41.9 to
18.3 billion)
Day-to-day
operationsportion of
non-check

The
noncash payments (card and ACH)
more than tripled (from 30.5 to 104.1 billion)
Checks written by consumers or to consumers declined much
faster than business-to business checks from 2009 to 2012.
Source: The 2013 Federal Reserve Payments Study.
Retrieved from: http://www.frbservices.org/communications/payment_system_research.html

Electronic utility bill payment

GOOD NEWS!
More utilities are offering electronic bill payment options
Day-to-day
And, more
customers are taking advantage
operations

Utility benefits
Lower costs related to the
processing of paper checks

Customer benefits
Convenience and time,
especially for recurring bill
payment options

Fewer errors and exceptions

Faster payment processing

Electronic utility bill presentment

Electronic presentment sounds great to customers but . . .
There are multiple:

Service providers
Enrollment processes
Log-in credentials
Websites to navigate
Emails to deal with each month and
PDFs of bills to download

Limited feature sets of utility legacy systems and poor utility web
design only adds complexity

Its just too much work!

Studies have shown that the average U.S. consumer spends

about six minutes per year thinking about their energy,
according to Opower.
Source: Opower, Facebook, NRDC, and Opower Partner to Develop a New Social Energy Application.
Retrieved from http://opower.com/company/news-press/press_releases/40

If that is the case, how much time do we think they are

willing to spend dealing with their utility bill?

Customers are not satisfied with gas utility websites and find
them difficult to use, increasing their time spent on the site to
complete the desired action. . . this dissatisfaction has led
some business customers to drop electronic billing and online
payments, deferring to the more traditional paper bill.
Chris Oberle, senior director of the energy practice at JD Power and Associates

Source: J.D, Power and Associates 2013 Gas Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study. Retrieved from:
http://www.jdpower.com/content/press-release/bjOxgfR/2013-gas-utility-business-customer-satisfaction-study.htm

More than just the bill

The scope of electronic presentment extends beyond the bill

Bill availability notices

Bill payment reminders
Documents
Messages

It is imperative that utilities support customer preferences

what to see, via which channel, when, etc.

Electronic bill presentment benefits

Substantial utility benefits
Lower cost-to-serve by eliminating the bill print and mail expenses
Reduce errors and exceptions both customer and utility-caused
Improve customer education/interaction capabilities (e.g. bill insert
vs. click through for more information)
More satisfied customers

When done well, customers save time and money, and the
overall customer experience is much improved

Thank you!

Bernie Gracy
VP Strategy
Pitney Bowes Digital Commerce Solutions

10

A more engaging approach to self service

Functional

Complete

Flexible
Relevant

Intelligent
Consistent

11

Utilities need to overcome several obstacles

$
Disparate
platforms

Disconnected
channels

High
development
costs

Limited
customer
insight

12

A more engaging approach to self service

Biller Direct:
Presentment
High Speed

Archive/Access
Paging, sorting, & filter
PDF Downloads
Bill history

Payment
Credit card & ACH
Immediate, scheduled,

recurring
Pay multiple bills at once

Enhanced Biller Direct:

Personal Video Billing:

Digital Consumer
Direct:

Explain complex information

Integration with a

in a simple and
understandable video
narrative.

Consumers receive the

specific information they
require

Address potential questions

before they become real
issues.

Customer care
Account management
Bill adjustment requests
Call Center integration

Consumers can explore and

Anytime

Anytime

Consumers Digital Life

Bank-based Aggregation
and Bill Payment

Personal Cloud
Aggregation and Auto
Payment

Increased Satisfaction

find answers to their inquiries

Increased Engagement

Anywhere
13

Percentage of Paperless Customers

Oil:

29%

Gas/Propane:

26.5%

Electric:

21.8%

Water:

18%

Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013
14

What the Industry is Saying:

Top IT Challenges
Managing preferred methods of delivery/payment

30.7%

Customer response management

28.5%

Capturing customer data across multiple touch points

27.0%

Integrating customer data to personalize

25.1%

Using data stored in electronic document archives

19.9%

Integrating social media with other communication

18.0%

Understanding transactions across internal business

15.4%

Performing and using marketing analytics

15.4%

Direct marketing campaign management

10.9%

International document/communication management

5.2%

None of these are challenges for our organization

9.0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013
15

What the Industry is Saying:

Top IT Challenges
Keeping pace with

33.7%

Managing security and reliability of

29.6%

Keeping pace with technology

28.8%

Customer authentication and identity

24.3%

Designing effective customer

21.0%

Managing multi-channel customer

19.1%

Optimizing content for mobile phone

15.7%

Branding consistency

13.9%

Providing multi-channel communications

12.4%

Optimizing content for interactions via

None of these are challenges for our

0%

10.1%
6.0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013
16

Chris Johnson
Vice President & General Manager
Inlet LLC

Paperless Consumers: Its Slow Going

How do you currently receive each of these bills and statements?
Loyalty/Rewards program

18.5%

39.3%

Mobile phone

27.2%

Checking, savings

28.0%

Credit card

29.2%

TV, Home phone, Internet

Investment funds
Loans
Insurance

42.2%

31.3%

41.5%

35.1%

36.9%

42.3%

38.0%
33.6%

28.5%

32.5%

29.5%

39.8%

37.5%
42.8%

26.6%

35.8%

26.7%

32.7%

24.5%

Utility

49.3%

30.8%

19.9%

Healthcare

50.3%

29.5%

20.2%

Only by mail

Both by mail and electronically

Electronically only

N = Various Consumers age 18+ in the U.S.

Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013

18

When Going Digital, Many Keep the Paper

While some consumer choose to go paperless, many are choosing both paper and
digital delivery, leading to increased cost-to-serve

57%
of consumers receive paper
and digital documents.
19

Consumers Expect a Paperless Future

Q15: How do you expect you will prefer to receive each of
these bills and statements in three years?
Only by mail
Loyalty/Rewards program
Mobile phone
Cable/Satellite TV, home phone, Internet

9.9%
15.2%
18.4%

Both by mail and electronically

26.8%

Electronically only

63.3%

26.2%
27.2%

58.6%
54.3%

Investment funds

15.6%

30.7%

53.7%

Loans

16.1%

29.3%

54.7%

Utility

22.0%

27.4%
29.1%

50.6%

Insurance

19.0%

Healthcare

20.1%

Credit card

18.9%

28.1%

53.0%

Checking, savings

18.5%

28.0%

53.4%

29.1%

N = Various Consumers age 18+ in the U.S.

Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013

51.9%
50.9%

Easy Access in One Location

Q59: What would be the primary advantage of combining
accounts into a single electronic location?
Easier to manage all services from
one location

31.70%

Reduce the number of usernames

and passwords I had to remember

28.60%

Save me time

28.10%

Get me organized

4.90%

Easier to remember when to pay

bills
Get rid of paper clutter by going
paperless
Other

4.40%

2.00%

0.40%

N = 1,069 consumers age 18+ in the U.S. that would prefer to access multiple online business accounts in
a single electronic location
Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013

Preferred Mail Consolidators

Consumers have a tremendous amount
of trust in their financial institutions.
Don't
Know
7.7%
*Other
11.5%

Digital
Mailbox
Service
8.0%

E-mail
Provider
11.3%

If you consolidated
your accounts to a
single electronic
location, where would
you want to access
them from?

Bank or
Credit
Union
Website
49.3%

Personal
Finance
Service
12.3%

*Government Agency Website 5%, E-commerce Provider 3.8%, Social Media Service 2.5%, Other .2%
N = 2,025 Consumers age 18+ in the U.S.
Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013

22

Personal Cloud Is Now Mainstream

Consumers are storing documents in cloud storage sites for anywhere
access
Q85: What specific content are you storing?
Bank statements

41.2%

Bills

41.2%

Tax records

32.0%

Insurance documents

28.2%

Medical and health records

26.5%

Legal documents

25.1%

Receipts

23.7%

Mortgage information

23.4%

Warrantees

23.0%

Investment documents

22.3%

Registrations

19.9%

Employment documents

18.9%

Automotive records

18.6%

Coupons

17.9%

Loyalty/rewards

17.2%

Pay stubs
Other

Multiple Responses Permitted

16.5%
10.7%

N = 291 Consumers age 18+ in the U.S. that use a personal cloud service
Source: The Future of Multi-channel Transactional Communications in the U.S., InfoTrends, 2013

New Channels Add Complexity

As new channels emerge integration adds complexity and often
duplication of efforts
Digital Mailboxes
Bank Web Site(s)
CITI.COM

MORTGAGE

Private Bank

CARDS

Retail Bank
Mortgage
Cards
Telcos

3rd Party
E-Mail
Global Digital Mail

Utilities
Social
Future Channels

An Open System to Serve the Industry

Content Providers

Bills

Consumer Destinations

Digital
Mailbox

Banks/Credit
Union

Statements

Cloud Storage

Proxy Voting

Notices

Partnership
Apps

Designed With Your Customers in Mind

Utilities

Customers

Channel Choice

Cost savings

Payment Status Across Channels

Payment Speed

Digital accessibility with multiplatform capability

One Integration

Marketing Opportunities

Customer Service Support

Shared Consumer Behavior

Data

Portal security and secure

document upload

Interact with various service

providers

26

Bank Mail Offered in Bank Dashboard

Enrollment Module
Welcome message
shown to users who
have not yet registered
for the service.

27

Integrated Dashboard View

Summary Module
Shows recently received
documents and summary
information

28

Integrated eBill Presentment

29

30

31

Questions & Answers

Contact:
Chris Johnson
914-819-3217
Chris.Johnson@InletDigital.com
www.InletDigital.com

Thanks for Your Time!

Contact:
Chris Johnson
914-819-3217
Chris.Johnson@InletDigital.com
www.InletDigital.com