Conquering Multi-Service Confusion with Document Automation

According to both the Federal Communications Commission and the Better Business Bureau, telecommunications companies are among the leaders in generating consumer complaints, most of them triggered by billing statements. For example, 50 percent of the wireless telecommunications complaints the FCC investigated in the third quarter last year fell into the “billing and rates” category.

The difficulties consumers have with bill interpretation are reflected in the efforts made to help people overcome them. Many states’ consumer protection agencies provide information to help decipher the charges listed on telephone bills, including state and local taxes. Groups like AARP offer phone bill interpretation tips on their websites. In Illinois, the Citizens Utility Board holds phone bill clinics and invites people to bring their telephone bills for review and translation.

Still, many consumers continue to be surprised and confused enough to file complaints. In some cases they have lobbied for legislation to fix what they see as widespread false or unfair billing, as well as deceptive and misleading marketing and sales tactics. In the end, the accusations and confusion signify a failure to communicate.

More Services Add Confusion
Traditional phone bills were often confusing enough, and bills for new services can be much worse. Bundled services usually offer discounted package rates, but they also result in allegations of “cramming”—adding unauthorized charges to a bill—or of deceptive and misleading marketing. Customers may not understand that a single charge covers a variety of services, or that additional charges like roaming or international long distance still apply.

Service providers are competing with each other and with new entrants, and often use the tactic of promising more reliable services and networks than their competitors, but most complaints don’t dispute quality of service. Customers complain about their monthly bills. These bills are presented in confusing industry jargon and abbreviations that inherently arouse suspicion. Complaints are often compounded with frustration about customer service representatives who still often cannot view and discuss the customer’s current bill. Certainly, bills need to be revisited in order to minimize complaints, call center volume and the opportunity for better marketers and billers to win customers away.

Multi-Service Success in Parallel Industries
One obvious opportunity for increasing revenue growth is to sell a broader range of services to existing customers, rather than searching for new prospects. But when it comes time to summarize a new group of transactions in a statement, maintaining a positive customer experience is very challenging. Yet financial services firms have been expanding offerings for years, so they’ve needed to create statements that investors can understand more easily. Similarly, insurance providers are trying to meet customer expectations for consistency and clarity regarding policy information and billing (see sidebar).

A well-known Wall Street firm expanded from serving primarily as a stock brokerage to offering a diversified range of financial solutions. Customers often had several existing accounts, but to add more services, like retirement planning, banking, credit and lending, and mortgages, the firm required them to open even more accounts. In the meantime—in order to position the company as the client’s single, capable, and trustworthy partner—its marketing department wanted to emphasize how the various services could work together to serve the customer.

Developing such a relationship goes beyond explaining billing charges and into forming more complex, unique ties with each client. This starts with showing them that their individual needs are understood and appreciated. Part of this Wall Street firm’s strategy, then, was to adopt enterprise document automation technology that allowed it to consolidate data from multiple customer accounts into a single summary report. This report lists all accounts with a balance sheet, portfolio review and monthly gain/loss review. It also includes data-driven charts and graphs that allow clients to see the services they already have and what more might benefit them. The redesigned monthly statement has been met with positive feedback from customers reporting high satisfaction with it.

The insurance industry rivals telecom when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. For insurers, like telecom providers, creating a unified view of customer transactions can be difficult, if not almost impossible, though customers are demanding it. In response, one large U.S. health insurer decided to redesign its statements, to make them clearer and more proactive so that customers could better understand their health benefits.

The insurer redesigned old, dull Explanation of Benefits (EOB) and Medicare forms into statements that are easy to comprehend and carry personalized messages. The new statements explain selected benefits using plain language and encourage engagement through the use of icons and colored images. The company combines customer data analysis and enterprise document automation software to personalize statements, tables, charts and dynamic messaging to make it easier for members to make informed decisions about their benefits and add new products.

Telecoms Are Meeting the Challenge
Many telecom providers are taking notice of their bills’ impact on the customer experience. One North American telco expanded into wireless services, high-speed Internet and VoIP, and found that 30 percent of the queries to its call center concerned billing. It needed to rethink its billing practices, with key objectives being to reduce billing-related calls, improve the online billing experience, drive more customers to adopt its e-bill, and in turn reduce printing and mailing costs. The company also wanted a bill design that would allow for more effective up-selling and cross-selling.

The telco invested in enterprise document automation software, because that would allow it to bring statement design in-house. It would also enable multi-channel delivery of bills either to the printing center or to the company website, where customers can view and download them.

The first page of the redesigned bill now includes a summary section with page reference numbers telling customers where to find more detailed information. Graphics and icons depicting usage were added to help customers navigate through the bill. An image representing the face of a CSR also helps customers navigate through the new bill.

To further help customers interpret charges for what may be recently added or bundled services, the new bill employs understandable terms, converting telco terminology such as OPK (off peak) into plain language like “evening.” CSRs, customers with paper bills and online billing users now all view the same statement, because the software generates PDF snapshots of printed bills for online and archival needs.

Given these fundamental changes, the carrier anticipated an 8 percent increase in call center queries when the first new bills went out. Instead, it saw a 6 percent decrease for that month, demonstrating that the new bill was in fact far easier to read and understand. This sort of improvement doesn’t require creating new technology domains. It moves towards service personalization, without rolling out millions of dollars in new network capabilities. In the end, even though new services can mean more potential for customer confusion, keeping billing statements ahead of the new product curve will pay dividends in lower costs, fewer complaints and more satisfied customers.

Enterprise document automation software and complementary digital output technology can make routine bills easier to understand, more accessible and more meaningful. Showing customers that you understand their needs—and can provide specific solutions to meet them—not only provides immediate engagement with them, but also supports building a long-term client relationship based on trust.

Want to learn more about statement design, document automation, and online customer tools? Check out TeleStrategies’ Telco e-Care, October 25-26 in Washington, D.C. and Customer Experience Management, November 13-14 in Orlando. Visit www.telestrategies.com for information and registration details.