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by Jill Morgan
Last month TeleStrategies hosted its annual Billing Output show in Orlando, Fla. Here are some of the key trends, top take-aways, and basic dos and don’ts that emerged at the conference.
First off, whether a provider is sending bills via email or print, the top goal is a smooth, cost-effective billing operation. By making statements easy to read and understand, providers can significantly reduce call center volumes. Equally important, better bills lower days sales outstanding, which can have a big impact on the bottom line.
E-billing, e-payment
One of the most intriguing issues covered at the event was e-billing and e-payment with print bill suppression. The use of e-billing with paper suppression is at about 7 to 9 percent in the residential market, but the business market is not seeing the same traction. Businesses are using e-billing to look at their bills and do some analysis, but they are not discontinuing their paper bills. Much discussion debated the reasons behind this behavior, whether it was corporate policy to retain a paper record or simple reluctance to give up paper due to habit. Regardless, conference participants are eager to find ways to change this reliance.
A related issue was ACH versus credit cards. Ideally a service provide would like to have consumer use ACH over credit cards to avoid the credit card processing fees. Providers found that if they simply list ACH (or debit bank account) on the sign-up form as the first option and credit cards last, more people selected ACH.
Other e-billing issues of interest included biller direct vs. consolidated billing models. This involves the battle over the customer relationship. For the last several years, telcos have made considerable efforts toward the biller direct model, which gives the service provider more opportunities to market and upsell services along with other benefits. However, there seems to be growing recognition on the part of telcos that many of their customers want to pay their bills through their own bank sites. If service providers want to keep customers happy and accommodate what’s most convenient for them, they need to work more closely with the banking institutions. With a partnership attitude, telcos are more likely to find effective ways to integrate their marketing efforts directly into those bank sites.
Reducing Paper Costs
Even a half-cent reduction in postage costs can save a provider significant sums of money, especially if they print high volume. Paper reduction can take place several ways.
- If a customer is not being charged for certain types of calls or has an unlimited-type plan, remove the zero-cost call detail records from the printed bill. One wireless operator cited a savings of $6 million a year after removing these records.
- Don’t itemize elements in a bundle. By itemizing, a provider is again spending more on paper, but also inviting consumers to call in to request that one service or another be removed from the bundle. The provider then has to explain that if they unsubscribe from the bundle their costs will go up.
- Print information on both sides of the bill. One example of a “don’t” cited at the conference was a section in a bill that stated “this page was left blank intentionally.” Providers aren’t going to save on paper costs using that logic.
- For auto-pay customers, don’t put a return envelope in the bill. Don’t give the consumer an opportunity to make a paper payment. Present information confirming that a payment was received, so the customer isn’t going to call in wondering whether an e-payment worked.
- Other paper savings involve inserts. Don’t include an insert solicitation for a service that a particular customer already receives. This happens more than the industry would like to admit.
- Lastly, the Postal Service can track inbound remittance mail. Providers who use this service learn whose payments are on the way and don’t need to send as many dunning notices.
Common-Sense No-Brainers
About 30 percent of inbound calls are related to billing, according to J.D. Power & Associates. The no-brainer here is that taking simple steps to improve bill clarity will reduce inbound call volume. For example, one third of consumers pay their bill immediately, as long as the amount is consistent with the last bill. To make it easy for these folks to pay, place the summary data on the front page of the bill, and indicate how much is owed and when it is due. Explaining when a previous balance is due, and when current charges are due, will save a call to the call center.
One of the top billing-related calls one company was receiving came from prorates. The bill should explain that the charges are a result of a change that the customer made, whether it was signing up for a new service or changing an existing one. Beside prorates, other top reasons for calls included response to a dated marketing plan or a graphical change on the bill. By understanding the inbound calls related to billing, a provider can better answer and anticipate such questions in advance.
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Don’t Forget the Change in Daylight Saving Time
Back in 2005, Congress changed the date for daylight saving time from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March. The correct time is obviously a very important issue for billing and mediation departments. Without the correct time in the various systems, billing and rating would be a mess. The change in DST is not considered a difficult problem by many in the industry, but given that it has received little fanfare it is also something not to forget about. Even still, for service providers with extensive legacy technology, “there could be a forgotten software system that is programmed to automatically reset the time of day based on the old rules,” says Shirley Craig, vice president of client relations for billing company UDP.
“The most important thing that needs to happen is that the ‘switch folks’ reset the switch clocks to daylight saving time on the new date,” she adds. This ensures that the usage records are recorded with the proper connect time so they are correctly rated and billed.
“Most carriers now set their switches to a static time—Greenwich time,” says Ed Shanahan, partner at consulting firm Excelerate Partners. The carrier’s mediation software compares where calls originated from, based on the calling number (or, in the case of mobile, the HLR or VLR), and that would give the system the offset from Greenwich time. Next the mediation software would look to see if standard or daylight saving time was in effect at the location where the call originated, at the time when the call originated. Pricing would price the call according to the rate plan in effect for that customer at the time the call originated.
“The key is to have robust tables in mediation” Shanahan says. These tables contain the offset of each location from Greenwich, as well as the start and end times for daylight saving in each location. Daylight saving time can vary within a country; within the United States, for example, some jurisdictions such as Arizona and parts of Indiana do not observe daylight saving time.
“Basically, carriers just need to make sure they make adjustments in the time offset table to show when new daylight savings will start and end in each location, and to test these changes thoroughly,” Shanahan says.
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