On January 24th in the downtown
Manhattan offices of JPMC, the inaugural Digital Mail Advisory Council was
launched. Co-sponsored by Madison Advisors and Digital Postal Mail, the event
was graciously hosted by JPMC at their 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza location.
Several Sr. Executives from Bank of America, JPMC, and Wells Fargo, as well as
Fidelity Investments, and representatives from Cox Cable
and Nationwide Insurance met with the objective to collaborate,
strategize, and drive best practices for the delivery of digital mail.
Madison Advisors has been tracking the
Multi-Channel delivery migration since 2003 through our Operational Viability
Assessments, and more recently through our targeted Enterprise research studies
on paper suppression and migration to eDelivery channels. The industry trends show stagnation in
customers migrating from paper to electronic delivery. All
of the participants indicated having similar customer reporting
migration issues to the new digital mail platforms. The group acknowledged the
plateauing of electronic adoption within customer base, and shared best
practices for incremental improvement. While several pockets of impressive
improvement are available, in total the market has not moved significantly in
the past 2 years.
During that span we’ve seen postage
increase, along with other operational costs in supporting paper delivery of
statements, invoices, letters, notices and checks. Even the US Treasury has adopted
a print suppression strategy – don’t print and mail. Starting in May 2011, all
recipients newly applying for benefits will receive only electronic payment,
and as of March 1 of this year, all Social Security recipients will no longer
receive a paper check. However, Enterprise
mailers under the same cost pressures don’t have that luxury due to consumer
preference pressures, and are forced to continually trim costs, or reduce
service.
Banks,
by nature of online banking and bill payment services, have some of the highest
online enrollment of any business sector. Yet half of those enrolled have not
turned off paper statements, throttling eAdoption at roughly 25%. Other
verticals varied by application (trade confirms having high suppression,
insurance policies having low suppression), and demographics. While all who
participated indicated that several tactics and methods had been used to drive
electronic adoptions, most had resolved to the fact that the low hanging fruit
had all been harvested.
Several key issues
were addressed, including reversion rates, conversion offers and methodologies,
new account handling, customer education.
Somewhat surprisingly, the consensus was the desire for some level of teaming
to achieve the digital mail density challenge facing enterprises &
customers today.
The common belief is that consumers
don’t subscribe to Digital Mail Box platforms for lack of content, namely their
mail – statements, bills and letters. Enterprise’s, constantly looking to cut
costs, are reluctant to take on project expenses to support new Digital Mail
Platforms for lack of customer traction.
Based
on the strategic priority, and the impact to the bottom line, leaders in these
Fortune 100 companies have a strategic imperative to drive electronic adoption.
The day closed with discussion around next steps, and how to bring the critical, large mailers together to drive mail density and
attract customers.
A few key banks, a wireless carrier, major utility, and an insurance provider
would provide sufficient critical mass to drive significant, incremental
adoption.
Look
for more new findings here as the council takes form.
