Making the Shift: What Other Option Does a Utility Have?
With the rising cost of print and mail, growing customer expectations for more personalized engagement anytime, anywhere, and the emergence of technology offering greater interactivity, it’s time for your utility to improve customer experience in ways that boost your bottom line.
So, what can you do—today—to help future-proof your business? You can take stock of your progress on digital transformation and chart the next step forward.
1. Print and Mail Rate Increases
The cost of print and mail is soaring.
In 2021, papermakers like the Burgo Group, Navigator Company, and Lecta announced they were raising their prices between 6% and 15% due to production and material cost increases. In 2024, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced new competitive price increases between 5.4% and 5.9% (depending on the service).
Now, USPS is requesting another huge rate increase of almost 8% for July 2024.
Paper utility bills and other documents will impact your bottom line—if they haven’t already. Its why paperless adoption is the way forward.
Modern customers love digital options, and you can even provide incentives to help them make the shift. More importantly, digital utility bills will eventually lower production costs linked to print and mail without sacrificing customer experience.
2. Adapting to Meet the Modern Consumer’s Expectations
Post-pandemic, the average customers’ needs have drastically changed. And leading providers across all industries have adapted to meet these new expectations with personalized, digital bills and other communications that customers can access on preferred channels and devices anytime, anywhere.
It’s true that some customers still prefer printed utility bills. After all, it’s possible to create beautiful, accurate documents that customers can keep on a desk or countertop for future reference. However, many customers now expect a modern, digital experience from their utility because it’s seamless and gives them better information, from billing to payment.
And it turns out utilities like it, too, because that frictionless experience helps to drive down support costs and accelerate payments.
3. The Future of Communications is Digital
Recent years have brought about significant advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that make digital communications even more personalized. When implemented well, these technologies help improve the customer experience.
For example, you can configure chatbots to respond to customer queries so they can quickly find the information they need. Interactive documents take digital communication to the next level, with a link securely delivered to the customer via email (or text) that leads to a microsite with highly personalized information. Customers can engage with this information, digitally, in many ways.
Digital communications are compelling, and they’re still evolving to help further simplify communications, reduce the strain on customer support teams, and improve the customer experience with detailed data they can view on demand.
The Time is Now: Paperless Adoption with Digital Bills
Digital adoption for utilities is a huge undertaking. You’ve got so much to consider, including legacy processes and systems, plus the tools and technologies that promise to help provide a digital Customer Communication Management (CCM) experience.
Despite the challenges, huge print and mail rate increases means you can’t risk a delay! Now is the time to start shifting from print to digital communications.
Working with a best-in-class partner for support will help you tackle this project step-by-step. Because going digital doesn’t need to happen all at once. You can (and should) go at your own pace.
With a bit of guidance, you’ll discover that going digital won’t limit your utility now or in the future. Instead, you’ll gain the power of increased revenue and reduced costs while driving a better customer experience.
