Digital eStatements vs. Paper statements: Which claims the banker’s budget?
The digital banking boom is still booming. On a fundamental level, this digital banking focus has centered on a singular goal: providing a great customer experience. But in the realm of banking statements, it seems bankers—and customers—are at a crossroads. Should banks continue to invest in paper statements, or have digital statements muscled out the old standard?
The answer isn’t as cut and dried as some might believe. In fact, when it comes to allocating the banker’s budget, the topic can be downright polarizing.
Traditional eStatements vs. Digital eStatements
When considering whether your institution should prioritize budgets for paper statements or digital statements, it’s important that a distinction be made between traditional eStatements and digital eStatements.
Before the digital banking boom, consumers were content to receive their monthly bank statements in the mail. But through the advent of the internet—and more specifically, email— many financial institutions now offer eStatements directly to their customers’ inboxes. These traditional eStatements, usually sent in a PDF format, save the institution print and mail costs, but do little to enhance the customer experience. This is because a PDF, much like a physical paper statement, is a static document. And while customers might be happy to reduce the clutter in their mailboxes, a PDF in their inbox doesn’t exactly provide the “wow” factor of mobile banking, social payments and other notable digital banking staples.
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