eBill/ePay Discussion Forum: Sharing Progress and Collaborative Next Steps

The discussion centered on what is driving measurable gains in eBill and ePay adoption, where resistance remains, and what organizations are testing next. Several participants reported paperless adoption in the mid-to-high 50% range.

Reported drivers of growth included structured auto-enrollment with opt-out, enforcing bundled program requirements, segmented campaigns, contact center alignment, and targeted payment conversion efforts. Key challenges included customer reaction to merchant fees, regulatory and system-driven print requirements, email management limitations, and maintaining confidence in billing accuracy. Participants also discussed predictive modeling to improve targeting and exploring IVR enrollment to reach customers who prefer phone interaction.

Key Takeaways

Several organizations are working to move beyond mid-50% paperless adoption levels. One company maintaining 55% reported no complaints so far this year and only one last year after adding a quality component to a $1 per enrollment contact center incentive and implementing refresher training when customers previously stated they were enrolled without consent. That same organization is preparing to implement a merchant fee and is seeing dissatisfaction during the communication phase, including customers connecting the fee to eBill and some resulting declines.

Another organization increased adoption from 48% to 57% by enforcing a deposit waiver requirement that customers remain on both auto pay and eBill for twelve months. They are launching a 1,000-customer pilot targeting portal-enrolled, auto pay customers who will receive three communications over 90 days before being automatically switched to eBill unless they opt out.

A different organization achieved a 6% increase followed by a 4% increase through segmented campaigns, including a three-month pilot where customers received both paper and electronic bills before defaulting to eBill. They continue to send required paper shut-off notices but were able to include the notice within the bill.

Another organization ended January at 59.5% adoption, driven by aggressive auto-enrollment campaigns, a contact center reward program, and automatic enrollment upon online account registration. They enrolled 25,000 to 30,000 small business customers last year and developed internal models to predict email open and click behavior, finding opens more predictable than clicks.

On the payment side, one organization converted 44% of targeted check-mail customers in its initial campaign and approximately 25,000 customers in an expanded effort, primarily to free ACH, with strong retention. They also raised the question of whether cancel-rebill activity may reduce confidence in eBill and auto pay.

Finally, one organization noted that despite having approximately 500,000 customers on eBill, certain dunning notices are still printed due to system and regulatory requirements, and they are exploring digital options for earlier-stage notices to reduce postage costs.