PDFIf you’re like many financial organizations, you’ve already made the transition to electronic statements. You understand the benefits of eStatements such as:
- Improved customer service responsiveness and communications
- Convenient and access to statements for both customers and staff
- Reduced Carbon footprint
And most certainly, reduced operating costs and savings gained from not having to print and mail all those statements.
But are you really saving?
Many organizations find that, despite employing an eStatement initiative, paper statements are still being churned out month after month with little change in eStatement adoption rates apart from the initial spike at rollout. And the cost savings? Unimpressive. Why is that?
Unfortunately, many organizations employing eStatements do not have a well-defined strategy or plan to drive adoption beyond simply offering eStatements as an alternative to paper statements. In many cases, customers don’t even know that they have an option to opt-out of paper in favor of an electronic alternative!
Whether you’re new to eStatements or currently have an eStatement solution in place, employing a proven eStatement adoption strategy is essential to help drive and improve eStatement adoption rates.
Does your organization have a solid eStatement Adoption Strategy?
If the answer is no, Doxim can help. We have worked with numerous organizations to implement well defined, well planned and well executed eStatement adoption strategies and as a result:
- The average Doxim client enjoys eDelivery levels greater than 50%
- Doxim’s top 10 percentile of clients achieve over 85% eDelivery levels!
Proven eStatement Adoption Strategies
There is no right or wrong approach to the promotion of eStatement adoption. The strategies you choose depend on the needs of your customers and your organizational goals as a whole. They can vary from a gentle informative approach to a more hard line reverse opt-in approach, or something in between. In many cases, organizations end up implementing a mixture of these approaches.
New Accounts Only
A good place to start your eStatement adoption strategy is with all your new accounts. These customers have never received a statement from you, so why not start where you mean to go on? To do this you simply flag all new account sign-ups in your banking system to automatically receive eStatements only. To soften the approach you can always provide customers with an option to opt back in for paper statements, if they so wish.
Voluntary Opt-In
For your broader customer base, probably the gentlest approach is Voluntary Opt-in. This approach requires a good bit of marketing support as you need to create good awareness, likely supported by incentive programs, to encourage customers to request that their printed statements be turned off in favour of eStatements. A successful adoption program will save you lots of money so the incentives you choose to offer via prize draws can be quite attractive.
Online Banking Customers
With this approach you turn off printed statements for all your online banking customers. Instead, your customers can access their official statements through their online banking portal. By signing up for online banking, these customers have already demonstrated that they are comfortable with online activities, so there should be little pushback with this approach.
Reverse Opt-In
A very effective, albeit hard-line, approach is to implement a customer-wide ‘reverse opt-in’ approach. This requires you to turn off all statement printing at a pre-announced future date. With this approach it is very important to saturate all customer communication channels with pre-advice, to ensure everyone is well aware of your intentions.
Include A Going Green Initiative
Many organizations choose to wrap their eStatement adoption programs in with a very prominent Going Green campaign. This lends credence to the program by drawing attention to the positive environmental impacts that eStatements bring.
Going Green campaigns also resonate well with customers, as it’s hard to fault you for demonstrating that you’re being environmentally conscious.
Want to Learn More?
Download Doxim’s eStatement Adoption Kit for examples of Doxim customers who have successfully implemented eStatement adoption campaigns with impressive results. It also includes helpful tips and important things to consider when developing your own campaigns.
Learn more about:
Doxim eStatements: Providing Online Statement Access for Your Customers
Doxim eInserts and eNewsletters: A New Way to Market to Your eStatements Customers
