Yesterday I participated in an interview session on the future of billing at BIMS in Amsterdam. We discussed how billing is changing & what this means for customers & communications providers.
Areas we discussed included:
- The change from a product centric, systems silo, world to a converged billing architecture.
- Billing convergence creating the opportunity to offer customers increased value via converged propositions with a single price point.
- The move to autopayment so the bill ceases to be a demand for payment & can evolve into a value statement.
- The scope for new bill delivery methods including a customer centric online portal & push email with secure bill attachments.
- The impact of billing on the propensity of customers to call, with queries.
- The value to both the business and the customer of quarterly billing & regular monthly payments.
- The impact of regulation on billing - service separation of the retail business from the local loop & the lessons for other markets.
- Differentiating between property (fixed line & broadband) & personal products (mobile) on the bill.
- Customer choice by allowing customers to build their own service bundles & customise the way the bill data is displayed.
