Why Customers Still Want (Need) the Paper Document

By Denise Davert, Elixir

Having trouble getting customers to check the “Don’t send paper” box? 

Upward of 60 percent of us access our statements and similar transactional documents online. Why then does a large percentage of THAT percentage still choose to also receive the paper counterpart in the mail?

Convenience.

What?

What could be more convenient than online access?

One of the benefits of the paper document is that it’s just plain handy. The customer can access the document quickly by going to their file cabinet or stack of mail.

Conversely, the online experience often provides the exact opposite experience. Websites can be difficult to navigate and can display large amounts of non-critical information while making the tasks most users want difficult to find.

Of course the online experience can and should be richer than the paper experience but making the most common tasks difficult to access can frustrate the user. In the end, he ends up not using the website very much which means you miss the opportunity to reduce your print and mailing overhead and also to effectively cross-sell. How many websites do you access only to pay your bill and can’t wait to log out?

The good news is the fix for this problem is not a total redesign of your website. In fact, it can be accomplished with a small modification.

Log in to your site just as a customer would and find a spot on that first page that can be used to provide quick access to commonly-used tasks. Don’t worry if these tools are scattered throughout other menus on your website ---- leave them there. This suggestion is to make them also available in a quick-access menu or location. Make the new menu or section obvious to the customer and include the functions that people need to re-create the convenience of paper.

Here’s a list of options to have in plain sight.

-          View current statement
Launches a PDF of their printed statement. Hey – looks just like the real thing!

-          View previous statements.
Allow users to “go through” their previous statements in the same way they do in their home file system.

-          Print the document
Follow a common user interface for the print process.

Once you recreate the familiar manual processes you can add the bells and whistles that an online experience can provide, for example allowing customers to build custom statements by selecting categories, date ranges, and other criteria.

The ability to build custom reports by categories such as all purchases from a specific store (Main Street Technologies) or a category (Electronics) could be highly valuable. And how about showing me my spending habits in a pie chart or bar chart?

Continuing with the paper process, you should allow customers to print and of course save this new customized statement version in their online file cabinet. Don’t be concerned about the storage required by the PDFs because on demand PDF presentment eliminates the need to store anything other than the data file and a single document template.  When the customer requests the document, the system restores the saved document by calling up the template along with the appropriate data.  No PDF to store! And of course the customer can always print or save the PDF locally.*

Keep in mind it’s not just web novices who shy away from using online tools. Today, it’s more about the ease and value of the online tool itself.

Duplicating the benefits of the paper document online will encourage more folks to transition fully to the internet and FINALLY check that box!

* Elixir’s Opus Suite eliminates the requirement to store the PDF for re-presentment. http://www.elixir.com/prodopus.htm