Beyond E-Statements – Compound your Savings and Opportunities
Adopting electronic statements is a good way to save money. You can save trees and save postage by delivering member correspondence online. As a result, banks and credit unions across the nation now offer e-statements to customers and members. But there is a bigger picture beyond electronic statements that is often overlooked. By adding other incremental communications – like letters, notices, and forms – you can compound your savings and multiply your opportunities to communicate with your members.
Paperless Savings
Why limit your savings to only an electronic statement? Every member document you add online saves you more. Here are the numbers: Sending an online statement costs around 20 cents compared to minimum of 75 cents for every paper document that is printed and mailed. That’s a savings of 55 cents for every document, for every member, every month. But the savings of going paperless don’t stop there. Compound that savings by adding member notices: that’s another 55 cents. Add member letters: another 55 cents. Forms: yet another 55 cents.
Beyond E-Statements
Looking beyond e-statements also compounds your opportunity to engage with your members. Each online communication improves your chance to sell additional products and services – like an auto loan, mortgage refinance, or a credit card – to your existing members. The more communication touch points the better. Going from an online engagement one time per month to as many as three, four or five times a month makes sense, especially if it takes form in something other than a paper newsletter or printed letter that will simply be thrown away with the rest of the junk mail.
Moving Forward
The time has come for financial organizations to cash in on the unclaimed savings and revenue opportunities made available using online member communications. When you look beyond the microcosm of electronic statements it becomes clear that it is no longer enough to check the “e-statement box” and move on while leaving additional savings and opportunity on the table. Decision makers must look carefully at technologies and solutions that will enable the transition but also help manage the process with a thoughtful strategy to eliminate the paper where it makes sense and continue business on paper as needed.
Brad Banyas is CEO of OMI, a leading Managed Communication Service Provider that assists organizations in transitioning print communications to the paperless world. Cloud communication services by OMI include, Statement2web® and TransXAction™, which provide a single point for creating, managing, and measuring critical customer communications. OMI enables business-changing strategies that utilize daily, weekly and monthly customer communications as focal points to reduce cost, increase revenue, improve brand loyalty and boost customer satisfaction. www.outsourcemanagement.com
