Electronic Statements

Launching: Doxo Looks to Dramatically Improve the Ebilling Experience

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Doxo, Electronic Bill Payment & Presentment, Electronic Statements, Launches

image Two significant Seattle-based financial startups are gearing up for launch, something I haven’t been able to say since the bubble days. We looked at location-based transaction monitoring company Finsphere last week. Today, we take a peek at Doxo, which is looking to disrupt the ebilling market and bring transactional paper mail into the 21st century.

I met with CEO Steve Shivers and Marketing VP Kevin Frisch last week in their new Pioneer Square office, a nifty location recently vacated by Microsoft. While public details are limited, I’ve had two briefings with the firm and can say that if it works, it could be one of the biggest financial plays in many, many years. Like Finsphere, Doxo is backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures and Bezos Expeditions.

Of course, the ebilling space is littered with failures including many well-funded ventures that pretty much all ended up being acquired by CheckFree (now Fiserv): MSFDC/TransPoint (Microsoft, First Data, and Citibank), Spectrum (Wells Fargo, First Union, and Chase) and Integrion (IBM and 17 banks) to name just a few. And the ebilling service at Fiserv isn’t exactly blowing the doors off, delivering 320 million bills each year (2009), just a sliver of the 40 to 50 billion sent annually in the United States.

All I can say about the startup is that they are creating an online hub where billers can send bills and communicate with customers in a much better way than through snail mail. It’s put together in a way that could really speed estatement adoption. And it’s funded by the billers, who save money immediately by eliminating paper statements to participants.

As demonstrated by the history of failed ebilling ventures, there are huge obstacles to overcome. But the time may be right for ebilling to finally take off. Billers are frustrated with low levels of estatement adoption, consumers are fed up with redundant email and paper communications, and no one wants to waste natural resources (and money) if there’s a viable alternative.

No one has yet figured out how to solve it. Doxo may have the answer. Stay tuned.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Wells Fargo Bank Offers $25,000 to Go to Paperless Statements

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Electronic Statements, Login/logoff marketing, Wells Fargo

image Full disclosure: I’ve always liked sweepstakes. Even though I’m a Diet Coke addict fan, I’ll gladly grab a different cola if it has an “instant win” cap. It’s like a free lottery ticket.

So when banks try to save a few coins switching customers over to estatements, I think it’s the perfect time to give some of it back in the form of a sweepstakes. You’ve created a little excitement in online banking and likely made it all back with a lift to the estatement response rate. ING Direct, Chase and many others have taken this approach in the past (previous coverage).

Wells Fargo’s current sweeps is pretty straightforward (link to details). For every account switched to paperless statements, customers get one entry in the sweepstakes. Ten customers will win $2500 each and one will get $25,000. A relatively small, but effective $50,000 prize pool.

The contest runs from April 12 through June 4.

Login splash screen (interstitial) (19 May 2010)

image

Landing page after choosing “Switch now” above
Note: Link to View Samples (see below)

image

Sample statement (click to enlarge)

image

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

BB&T Pushes Online Statements on Homepage

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, BB&T Bank, Electronic Statements

image Most major financial institutions have been pushing estatements for several years (see previous coverage). The appeal of shaving $10 to $20 off the annual servicing cost for every account is an attractive payoff.

Yet, you rarely see estatement appeals elevated to the homepage. BB&T bucks convention with this attractive graphic with the big-three benefits: security, convenience, accessibility (see first screenshot). The green button leads to a landing page reiterating these three benefits plus adding the environmental message.

Bottom line: It’s a good, educational effort. But with most consumers already aware of online statements, there’s little motivation to change something that’s worked fine for the past 10, 20, 30 or more years. 

If you are serious about reducing paper and postage expense, give your customers a reason to change their behavior:

  • Low-cost gifts, such as a pair of movie tickets, 2-for-1 meal, $10 Starbucks card, etc.
  • Sweepstakes (one-time or ongoing; see Wells Fargo example below)
  • Extra online services such as increased archives or an electronic vault
  • Enhanced security guarantee
  • Discounts on other services

But whatever you do, don’t introduce a fee for paper statements unless you want to get T-Mobiled.

BB&T homepage promotes online statements (7 Oct 2009)
Access via Seattle IP address; we do not have any accounts at the bank

image

Landing page (link)

image

Wells Fargo $60,000 estatement sweepstakes landing page (link)

image

Note:
For more information, see our Online Banking Report: Lifetime Statement Archives (June 2005)

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

A Cautionary Tale: T-Mobile Forced to Cancel Plans to Charge a Monthly Fee for Paper Statements

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Electronic Statements, Public Relations

image According to today’s Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile has backed down from its plan to start charging its customers $1.50 per month for paper statements (see my 22 Aug Tweet, inset, and T-Mobile landing page, below).

Apparently, a customer backlash prompted the reversal, coupled with the threat of government intervention over the proposed change that was to go into effect this week (note 1) . 

Lesson: Banks and card issuers are working hard to eliminate paper statements from their cost structure. But, be warned that consumers are not ready for an estatement mandate. It’s better to offer various enticements to go electronic rather than forcing a new fee or paperless policy on customers. See our previous coverage for ideas to incent estatement usage.  

T-Mobile landing page for estatement signup (link, 22 Aug 2009)

image

T-Mobile account management Billing & Payments page (16 Sep 2009)
Surprisingly, T-Mobile doesn’t currently even have an option on its billing page to turn the paper statement off. 

image

Note:
1. New York’s attorney general warned T-Mobile that it could not impose new charges without giving customers the option of ending service contracts early. 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

How Measly Online Banking Archives Almost Cost Us $300

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Chase Bank, Electronic Statements, Fee Income, US Bank

image One of my least favorite tasks as a business owner is filling out forms, and tax forms are the worst of the lot. Thankfully, Washington state has a relatively simple online form that I can complete at literally the last minute of the quarterly filing period.

So last week, with the midnight deadline looming, I went to download the previous quarter’s transactions into our accounting software. After doing so, I noticed a six-week gap in the data. Because of timing issues, it had been 130 days since I’d last downloaded. Guess what? My bank archives only 90 days of data for Microsoft Money users (note 1).

So, I went online and figured I’d retrieve the older transaction there. No luck. Again, only 90 days of past data are visible in online banking. Next, I tried the data-download function. Nope, same 90-day limit. Now realizing that I’d have to hand-key the data, I was getting frustrated, but I figured I could at least view my April and May statements online. Strike 4. My bank doesn’t post any estatements online UNLESS you’ve previously given up your paper statement.

So I had to paw through my paper piles to find the missing statements, then spend a half-hour hand-entering business transactions. Boy, did I feel like a fool. Luckily, I’d started the process earlier than usual and made the midnight deadline; otherwise, the lack of data archives would have cost me more than $300 in city and state penalties.

Fee opportunity for banks
Had I been a perfect customer and remembered to download my data within the 90-day window, this wouldn’t have happened. But really, now that you can buy a 1TB (1000MB) hard drive for $79, how can a bank justify a measly 3-month archive, especially for business clients? Even factoring in security costs, backup sites and other expenses, what is the marginal cost to store 18 months of transaction data? A buck per year? Probably more like a dime or less (note 2).

It no longer makes sense to arbitrarily limit online data archives. Put a price on it and let your customers decide how long they want to store their data. Many small business customers would pay $1 to $2 per month per year of back archives. Interested consumers might pay half that, e.g., $3 to $5 per month for a 7-year archive.

It can also be used a perk for going paperless. For example, Chase Bank offers seven years of online statements for its customers (see screenshot below); otherwise, users can access only the last 18 months online.

Finally, it’s one of the most cost-effective retention tools imaginable (note 3).

Chase Bank promotes the benefits of going paperless to its online banking users (1 Sep 2009)

image

Notes:
1. The lack of past data is especially annoying since I pay $5.95/mo for the data download service.
2. I do understand that increasing online archives is not a simple project. And even though storage costs are relatively minimal, the PROJECT costs, are certainly not. I’m sure it’s a multi-million effort that’s difficult to justify in an era where regulatory mandates eat up IT budgets like a power surge gobbling data. 
3. For more info on estatements, refer to our Online Banking Report on Lifetime Statement Archives (June 2005) and Electronic Messaging & Statements (Feb 2003).

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Value-added Online Financial Services: $4.95 per Month is the New Free

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Electronic Statements, Fee Income, Mercantile Bank of MI, Wells Fargo

imageAs we’ve mentioned before, there are surprisingly few fee-based online financial services in the United States (see note 1). But things may be changing. In the past month we’ve looked at three innovative services charging fees:  

Today, we highlight a fourth new fee-based service, also charging $4.95/month (or more), vSafe from Wells Fargo. vSafe is a secure online storage solution that sells for $15 to $15 per months as follows:

  • $4.95/mo for 1GB of storage
  • $9.95/mo for 3GB of storage
  • $14.95/mo for 6GB of storage

The service was introduced several months ago, and I’ve been using it for a couple months. The service automatically stores Wells Fargo statements, and allows users to upload any other file up to the storage limit. It would be even more useful if it offered automated retrieval and storage of other bank and biller statements.

Wells Fargo homepage (1 June 2009, 1:15 PM PDT)

image

Landing page (link, 1 June 2009)

image

Take a test drive in the Wells Fargo lab (link, 1 June 2009)

image

Interactive video highlighting benefits

image

Signup explanation

image

Notes:
1. The golden rule of consumerism: “You get what you pay for.” Because online banking services are typically offered free of charge, U.S. consumers have had to contend with clunkier, slower, less secure and less feature-rich online services than consumers in other countries that pay for online access. Fees for online services can be a win-win, allowing financial institutions to offer premium online services for those willing and able to pay for them, while at the same time offering basic services free of charge so that everyone can benefit from online banking. 
2. Article updated 9 July 2009 to remove incorrect reference to Expensify’s $4.95/mo fee (see comments).

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Are Paper Statements on their Way Out? American Express to Force Up to 7 Million Cardholders into Electronic Statements

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: American Express, Credit/Debit Cards, Electronic Statements

image Today’s American Banker tells of AmEx’s plans to force electronic statements on an undisclosed portion of its corporate cardholder base, said to number more than 7 million accounts worldwide (note 1). This is probably a bit of an exaggeration, as it’s more likely that paper statements are being eliminated as a standard account benefit and must be negotiated separately for an additional fee. The company admitted there would be exceptions for those without Internet access or those that still required paper for customer billings.

But it’s still a watershed moment. Today, paper statements are a standard feature of most banking and credit card relationships. In a study last year (note 2), Javelin Research found that only 15% of customers had given up paper statements entirely on their primary credit card.

Currently, the burden falls on the financial institutions to beg, trick, incent, or “green” their customers into giving up paper (see inset above from Texans Credit Union). For example, Citibank frequently uses an interstitial (splash screen) after login that encourages estatements (screenshot below). See our previous posts on those efforts.

The tables are about to turn. With severe profit pressure on most big banks and card issuers, most (all?) will soon adopt the American Express approach and offer electronic statements free of charge, with paper available for an extra charge. This is how checking-account pricing has evolved over the past two decades as banks migrated customers to check truncation as the standard, with paper checks returned for an extra fee (note 3).

Interstitial displayed after logging in to Citibank’s online banking
(9 April 2009, note 4)

clip_image002

Notes:
1. This decision will impact less than 10% of American Express cardholders, which number 92 million worldwide as of 31 March 2009, up 4% from 88 million cards a year ago.
2. Javelin survey of 2,500 consumer head of households in 2008.
3. For no valid reason any more, checks are still returned on my U.S. Bank “free” small business checking account for a $10 monthly fee.
4. Example from our latest Online Banking Report: Selling Behind the Password.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Little Earth Day Excitement at U.S. Banking Websites

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Bill payment, Electronic Statements, Green Marketing

image Given the financial benefits of driving paper out of the banking system, I was surprised to see little evidence of banks or credit unions using Earth Day to promote paper-saving options (eStatements, electronic bill pay, ebills) or fuel-saving approaches (online banking, remote deposit capture, bank by mail).

I looked at the 30 largest retail banks and the 10 largest credit unions and found just three green banking promos running on the homepage: Sovereign Bank (Santander), Zions Bank, and Citizens Bank (Royal Bank of Scotland).

And none of those were Earth Day specific. A Google search turned up a few credit unions sponsoring shredding days, which are nice, but not really doing much for the environment.

Sovereign Bank (Santander)
Santander’s Sovereign Bank encourages users to go green by signing up for bill pay and ebills. A savings calculator on the landing page allows users to determine the environmental impact of converting bill pay activity from paper to electronic. In addition to the environmental benefits of eliminating paper, the bank promises to plant a tree for every ebill initiated.

The incentive program is conducted in partnership with the bank’s bill payment provider Fiserv/CheckFree (press release).  Similar programs are also in place at BankAtlantic, Fifth Third Bank, PSCU Financial Services, SunTrust and USAAimage

Sovereign landing page (22 April 2009)

image

 

Zions Bank
Zions promotes eStatements in a small mid-page graphic. No monetary incentives are provided.

image


Citizens Bank
RBS’s Citizens Bank is pushing its Green$ense checking rewards program that pays users $0.20 per electronic transaction for the next 12 months. Ultra-heavy users (3x per day), could bag up to $20/month in savings.  

image

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Out of the Inbox: U.S. Bank Pushes E-statements with "Go Green with Online Statements"

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Electronic Statements, Email Marketing, Email Samples, US Bank

imageOn Friday, I received a marketing message from U.S. Bank attempting to convince me to turn off my paper statements and adopt online statements. In 2007 (here), I wrote about its similar effort at login. 

The graphic design and layout are wonderful with splashes of green throughout and a peaceful, sunny forest scene. It’s a nice bit of branding for the bank. So far, so good.

However, in terms of direct-marketing effectiveness, where the goal is to get the reader to take action, the message leaves a lot to be desired.

Turning off your paper statement is a relatively major change in behavior (previous post), so readers need clear information and/or incentives to move to less-costly paperless delivery. This message is lacking in both.

Benefit statements
Here are the supposed user benefits touted in the email:

Online statements help you:

– Deter fraud
– Reduce clutter
– Manage accounts
– Get real-time updates

Let’s look at the benefits from the standpoint of the end-user:

  • Deter fraud: Can the average reader make the leap to how online statements will cut down on fraud? I doubt it. This bullet point needs more detail.
  • Reduce clutter: This is pretty self explanatory. But do people really think of their monthly bank statement as “clutter.” Some do, but it’s not a particularly compelling argument.
  • Manage accounts: This wording leaves a lot to be desired. How does turning off your paper statements help you manage your accounts better? Presumably, those who sign up for online statements have more info available online. If that’s the case, the bank needs to say so.
  • Get real-time updates: What do online statements have to do with real-time updates?  This is probably meant as a generic benefit for banking online, but it’s out of place here.

On the other hand the environmental benefits are much more tangible. However, for the cynical reader (and there are a LOT of cynical bank customers these days), there should be footnotes explaining the derivation or source of the green benefits. For example, at the bottom of the message there’s prominent claim:

Save nearly 7 pounds of paper yearly by Going Green.

That sounds impressive, but if you think about, it doesn’t jive with experience. Unless you get your checks back, most statements come in at under an ounce. And that includes a significant amount of bank advertising flyers. So how do we get from 12 ounces saved annually to the 7 lbs cited in the email? Readers will never know because there is no additional info available to substantiate the claim. You would think the bank would explain the claims on the landing page, but it has even less info (see below).

Call to action/incentives
The message includes tangible, albeit unsubstantiated, environmental benefits which are compelling. However, customers know that all these benefits spell significant cost savings for the financial institution. For some customers, especially of  member-owned credit unions, that may be enough to get them to take action.

However, many customers are going to feel this is a pretty one-sided deal. If they are going to give up the comfort of their paper statements, there should be something in it for them.

That’s why we recommend an incentive of some sort. It could be a periodic giveaway, a one-time thank-you gift ($5 at Amazon), or an extra online benefit they wouldn’t otherwise get, such as long-term archives, premium customer service or a free-overdraft card. For example, Key Bank offered a low-cost and effective incentive in the fall (post here). Chase had an even better promotion in 2007 (post here).

Landing page
Granted, there isn’t much room in a one-page HTML message. So it’s understandable that the benefits are abbreviated. Usually, a marketer will use the landing page to expand on the key features and benefits. However, U.S. Bank’s landing page offers little additional help (see screenshot below).

The page doesn’t connect back to the email in any meaningful way. Benefits are neither reiterated, nor explained. Within the page, a brief explanation tells how to enroll, but surprisingly the Enroll Today link on the right has nothing to do with estatements and leads to a page explaining online access options.

Grades

  • Design: A
  • Copywriting: B+
  • Content: C+ (could be A- if benefits were explained on the landing page or FAQ)
  • Landing page: D
  • Overall effectiveness: A- for brand building; C- for driving estatement enrollment

U.S. Bank email marketing message, “Go Green with Online Statements” (23 Jan. 2009)

image

image

U.S. Bank landing page for online statements (link, 27 Jan. 2009)

image

Note: See our Online Banking Report on Email Marketing and Online Banking Report on Emessaging & Statements for more information.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Key Bank Runs Timely "Pick Your President" Promotion

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Electronic Bill Payment & Presentment, Electronic Statements, Key Bank

imageOverall, most major financial institutions do a good job with website design. But one thing usually lacking is timely tie-ins with events and holidays. Google is famous for doctoring its logo dozens of times each year to coincide with the national holidays and other big events. For example, for today’s big presidential election, the logo has been changed into a voting booth.

Those efforts, while not always directly driving new business, keep the website fresh and show that the bank is paying attention to the events that impact users day to day. And the best ones can increase sales. By leveraging well-hyped events such as the Olympics or Super Bowl, financial institutions can gain valuable PR and attention from customers.

image I looked at 3 or 4 dozen large U.S. bank and credit union sites today and found just one riding the election hysteria to make a point. Key Bank’s Pick Your President promotion (here) has nothing to do with McCain vs. Obama but is actually a clever way to convince customers to switch to electronic statements. Customers get $1 (George Washington) for every account switched to estatements and $5 (Abe Lincoln) if they take bill pay with that. The bank is also throwing in a pair of $1,000 sweeps prizes to add a few Benjamins to the mix.

Nice job, Key; our vote is with you.

Key Bank homepage with small banner for the Pick Your President promo
(4 Nov 2008)

image

Key Bank Pick Your President landing page (4 Nov 2008)

image

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bank of America’s Electronic Statement Icon

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Electronic Statements, Website Usability & Design

Is there anyone left in America that doesn't have an account at Bank of America? Probably a few, maybe even some of our readers. But if you haven't logged into your account lately, you might have missed the subtle "green marketing" the bank is using to encourage customers to go paperless.

In the screenshot below and closeup above, you can see the little green leaf next to the words "Go Paperless." It's subtle, as good green marketing should be. The leaf not only makes the link stand out, it provides a small reminder that customers can do a little something for the environment, and the bank's bottom line, while they are online.  

Also of interest (by the second arrow), since I only have a credit card, is link cross selling a free "MyAccess Checking Account." 

BofA "account overview" page (23 Aug 2007, Washington state credit-card-only customer)BofA main account page

Finally, the bank doesn't ignore the important logout page, a often-forgotten piece of real estate that can be far more effective than a homepage banner ad. This month, the bank is promoting it's No Fee Mortgage Plus.

BofA logout page (23 Aug 2007, Washington state credit-card-only customer)

BofA logout advertising

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

US Bank Pitches Electronic Statements at Login

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Electronic Statements, US Bank

Using a splash screen after logging in to online banking (see screenshot below), U.S. Bank is asking customers to move to electronic statements, specifically for credit card and loan accounts, although the online-only option is also available for checking accounts. I saw the message, dated Aug. 20, for the first time today. I've been a customer of U.S. Bank through the entire online era (note 1) and this is the first time I recall being asked at login to go paperless. Unlike PayPal, BofA, and others, U.S. Bank rarely uses the login splash screen technique. 

Let's look closer at the bank's pitch:

Title: Internet Banking Updates
NetBanker comments: OK…but would be more effective if it directly mentioned the purpose of the message

Opening line: U.S. Bank Internet Banking just keeps getting better! 
NB comment: That's a bad opening line. This is not a new feature. Some U.S. Bank customers have had electronic statements available for 13 years now. Everyone customer has had them for at least 9 or 10 years. The only new thing is that you stop receiving paper statement, hardly the "bank getting better." Most customers know this is a cost savings move for the bank.

Benefit statement (bullets): Online Statements Only help you: Deter fraud, Reduce clutter, Manage your account online….
NB comments: Beside the grammatically challenged opening, the bank did a good job getting the anti-fraud message into the first bullet. The second bullet, "reduce clutter," is OK, but the third is pretty weak. Why are you telling online banking customers they will benefit from "managing your account online?" And only 18 months of archives is hardly going to give customers a good feeling about doing away with their paper statement.

US Bank's online statement signup Call to action: The bank provides specific instructions on how to turn off the paper statement.
NB comments: The specific instructions are good, but a small graphic of where to click would be more powerful (see the example at right). Also, the choice to view the message later is a user-friendly option.

Overall graphic design: The splash screen is laid out like a letter.
NB comments: That's OK, but a graphic image or two would give it a more modern and professional image.

Overall grade: C
NB comments: The bank does a good job getting right to the point. But the overall look and feel along with some of the specific copy points lower the score. This would have been an A- in 1997, but a decade later, Internet users expect and deserve a more sophisticated message.  

US Bank online banking splash screen

Note:

1. Full disclosure: I was the lead product developer on U.S. Bank's online banking system launched in 1994.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook