A Canadian public utility company has implemented GPE’s Secure PUSH eMail bill presentment solution. The system enables cost effective, personalized and secure email delivery of bills – reducing costs, increasing paper turn off and improving customer service.

The company needed a solution to bring them closer to their customers and improve customer service, while reducing costs. It needed a system that allow them quicker response timers in delivering bills and encourages electronic payments to achieve a significant paper turn off rate, as well as reduce DSO (Days Sales Outstanding).

In March 2006, 16 weeks after approval, the company went live with the PUSH eMail billing system, allowing customers to receive their utility bill in the form of an encrypted PDF file, via their personal email.

This affords customers the ability to view exact copies of their paper bills and the opportunity to make quick and easy payments via a link to Internet banking. A simple click-through function imbedded in the email enables payments to be made through all eight banks in Canada, without the need for paper-based transactions. A print facility is however available for anyone who needs a hard copy of their bill.

Multiple bills can be consolidated into a single email for customers with many accounts. A data file can also be included for convenient uploading into the business accounting system.

“When selecting a billing solution, we wanted a system that could be implemented quickly and that would capture the greatest number of customers. The GPE solution makes participation easy for customers and allowed us to achieve our objectives very quickly”.

Advantages for the consumer, as a result of the system implementation, include not having to ‘do’ anything to receive their bills electronically – the bill is automatically sent to their inboxes and only requires a single click to view. The email bill is significantly more secure than a paper bill or biller direct website, and customers can now experience increased customer service by simply replying to the email bill with any queries they might have.

Benefits of the new solution include the automation and immediate bill delivery to customers, significant paper & postage cost savings, improved DSO and customer service, as well as less billing related calls into the call center. The system further allows for improved reporting and bill usage visibility – enabling the company to see when email bills were sent, when and if they were delivered, when and how many times they were opened, as well as which links within the body of the email and secure PDF were clicked on. It monitors if replies were sent and whether there were any new subscribers to the service or customers who unsubscribed.

• Go live: March 23, 2006
• 3% paper turn off at go live!
• Currently at 6% (October 2006)
• On track for 9% after 12 months (paper turned off)
• 98.6% email deliverability
• Less than 0.05% opt-out
• 85% to 95% of email bills opened in less than 1 working day
• 99.5% paper turn off

We implemented the eBilling system within 16 weeks of approval, saving the company time, effort and costs. It enabled the client to offer consumers and businesses a quick and secure alternative to paper billing and payments, and increased its effectiveness in communicating with customers through a highly personalized channel.