tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12514577846121706772025-09-30T00:06:28.952-07:00Breaking news from the Electronic Billing World. Stay up to date on all things related to eBilling.Timothy Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15848564638097402892noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-5725523141449341452014-01-23T04:38:00.006-08:002014-01-23T04:40:00.002-08:00

In my mind, building your brand and building customer loyalty are key to providing an excellent customer experience. There are many other factors: product, price, people, sales and marketing. But the primary factor that builds long term loyal customers is a consistent positive customer experience. In all communications with our clients, we can push information to them via

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-81738799191119995312014-01-15T04:34:00.003-08:002014-01-15T04:34:40.282-08:00

As I come across more and more questions about the use of HTML5 for interactive and dynamic email statements, it strikes me that this strategy has either been poorly delivered or highly misunderstood. I suspect it’s a combination of both.  Can HTML 5 drive paperless suppression? The reason I field questions regarding HTML5 is that businesses approaching me want to reduce paper, postage and

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-55250164558242917482014-01-08T05:13:00.001-08:002014-01-08T05:14:48.799-08:00

In mid-December Google made a fundamental change to the way it serves images to users in Gmail - images will now be downloaded by default, however, browser / operating system information won’t be available and location based tracking won’t work.  The nitty gritty Instead of allowing the browser to fetch the image from the hosting web server itself and display within the email,&

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-18651422888454549612013-12-11T04:36:00.005-08:002013-12-11T04:36:48.905-08:00

Phishing alerts, password fatigue, digital mailboxes that aren’t getting lift off and more... Here are the 5 most popular Striata eBilling blog posts of 2013. Why Australia Post CEO is Dead Wrong said Keith Russell following a press release by AusPost CEO, Ahmed Fahour, regarding the upcoming launch of the Australia Post Digital MailBox.  Ahmed said that Australia Post

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-26950300625124381642013-12-04T04:29:00.003-08:002014-04-02T04:23:16.184-07:00

Our eMarketing experts did some quality blogging this year.  We pulled the analytics, dug out the archives and here is a quick digest of the posts that 'rocked your boat' this year…  Simon Johnston chased after online shoppers that dropped their basket before proceeding to the checkout (not literally!) Email picks up the dropped basket looks at why the email channel

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-43934465724928254732013-11-28T05:55:00.000-08:002013-11-28T05:57:42.915-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited about the potential and possibilities of HTML5 - I'm just not sure if we are ready to use it to send secure documents by email.Phishing, malware, weak ciphers and limited payloads are all serious concerns regarding the use of HTML5 as it stands today - where using HTML5 as the carrier requires sending an HTML attachment. HTML was used as a

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-74179876734032272642013-11-20T05:21:00.002-08:002013-11-20T05:22:13.436-08:00

Is it just me, or are there new loyalty programmes being launched each month into the already cluttered loyalty space? From my local petrol station to large retail chains to my local gym, everyone wants me to sign up for their loyalty programme.While as a wily consumer, I’m always looking to be rewarded for my business, on closer inspection it seems that some of these so called 'loyalty

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-81012648275693591832013-11-08T04:35:00.002-08:002013-11-08T04:35:25.751-08:00

With the UK reporting economic ‘growth’ for the first time since the recession, the economy is still 3% smaller than it was before it. In times like these, consumers are less loyal than ever before because their lack of pocket money requires them to be opportunistic. Time to drive price down? The demise of the loyal customer has led all too many businesses into thinking that only low

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-9745623480793290722013-11-01T06:44:00.000-07:002013-11-01T06:44:33.228-07:00

For the last few months I’ve been monitoring the online “chatter”, blogs and news articles around the Gmail tab changes and recently wrote an article on how to get your time critical messages into the primary Gmail inbox tab.The online community’s response to these changes range from wide-eyed fear that marketing messages will not be read, to resignation that the tabs actually do work

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-79032311076003396142013-10-24T08:00:00.001-07:002013-10-24T08:00:38.844-07:00

Ireland’s Communications Regulator has just introduced the world’s first Consumer Protection for Bills and Billing Mediums. It’s been a long time coming, particularly when you consider the number of lawsuits that have been sparked off by ill-conceived eBilling strategies around the world!But now that regulation has arrived, it's worth having a look at what the Irish Telco regulator thinks

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-44528767173245280642013-10-18T04:59:00.003-07:002013-10-18T05:06:54.289-07:00

It’s that time of year again when we must shift our focus to ensure that our email campaigns are given an extra boost during the festive season. Focus on factors like standing out in a crowded inbox and making the festive retail experience easier and more convenient for customers.For me, the key during this time of year is to effectively nudge your customers further down

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-35960193850332067612013-09-26T05:19:00.002-07:002013-09-26T05:19:27.239-07:00

In a previous blog post I said that there was little to no chance of a consolidator succeeding in the USA. After watching this space very carefully for the past 36 months, I now feel there may be a solution that could work. It needs a large bank, internet banking and a push delivery model. Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Chase are the US’ largest banks; BOA alone has close

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-22200103027986813912013-09-18T06:10:00.001-07:002013-09-18T06:10:11.127-07:00

Who would have thought that there’s a word for that annoying issue we’ve all seen in emails and online, where punctuation and other characters are mangled into unreadable text? But there is a word, and that word is mojibake. It’s Japanese for “transformed characters”. I like it! (the word, not the mangled text.)I’m sure you’ve all seen it before, but here’s an example: æ–‡å—化ã . That’s the

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-70258786448308904132013-09-12T05:17:00.005-07:002013-09-12T05:17:53.541-07:00

Collections departments have it hard. The high cost of communicating with delinquent customers vs. the law of diminishing returns that reduces the value of the recovery, it’s no wonder low value debt is “being written off as a cost of doing business” [1]. And customers are just not responding to traditional methods of collections anymore. Across the UK; Utility, Telco, Finance and

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-51069564572625983072013-09-05T06:14:00.002-07:002013-09-05T06:15:16.181-07:00

User Experience (UX) is not a design, or how the design is laid out, or even the colour pallet used. It is neither content nor interactivity. UX is a marriage of all these aspects in such a manner that translates into positive user engagement - giving the user a positive experience with the product. It will always require a collaborative team effort to achieve great user experiences.The one thing

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-57915493984377329692013-08-29T06:50:00.004-07:002013-08-29T06:52:02.652-07:00

Google “eDelivery” and you’ll find hundreds of company websites extolling their electronic delivery (aka paperless) programs. Here’s the rub: almost every single one is a lie. When you compare each eDelivery program against the definition of the word delivery, it’s clear that no actual document delivery happens for customers. Why is there such misrepresentation in the marketplace?  Deliver/

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-903792115482675122013-08-22T05:42:00.003-07:002013-08-22T05:46:17.782-07:00

In a recent discussion with a client, I asked if she would consider using video in her email campaigns. Her immediate response was skepticism, based on two key perceptions: Embedding video would result in an email that is too large to deliver Recipients would need a 3rd party plug-in for successful video play back She was not wrong. These challenges have puzzled innovators for the past 15

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-82524802145060051172013-08-15T05:11:00.000-07:002013-08-15T05:11:56.699-07:00

It's the network stupid! James Carville's slogan for Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign ("it's the economy, stupid") acted as a lightning rod for voters, refocusing them away from the war in Iraq onto the 'real' issue at hand, the US economy.When I distil the reason that certain technologies become ubiquitous and other (seemly good ideas) languish in the paperless adoption chasm, the '

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-36243864708845322772013-08-01T04:41:00.004-07:002013-08-01T04:41:34.371-07:00

Every email database will date. Customers may move companies, change surnames, move to another provider or even be inactive for a period of time on their webmail account. All these factors result in an outdated email database.The bottom line is you are no longer getting your emails through to these customers. And any touch-point lost, is an opportunity lost or cost added. Keeping an

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-42251169397553542492013-07-26T05:37:00.003-07:002013-07-26T05:37:38.486-07:00

While reading various articles about SMS cost regulation (currently trending in the South African market), I got to thinking about how messaging cost structures could either stimulate or stifle innovation. (To get the background to the regulatory debate – read this article by Peter Streicher in which he explains how networks are currently managing inter-charge fees for

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-52865577649788980172013-07-25T04:21:00.002-07:002013-07-25T04:24:01.652-07:00

Not so long ago, I sat in a security meeting at a leading global bank and they told me that to combat phishing concerns and to protect customers, they quite simply do not email them. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Of course they email their customers, just nothing worth looking at. Phishing is killing your portal because it’s stopping you from sending functional and valuable

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-39713385702899165522013-07-11T03:55:00.001-07:002013-07-11T03:55:13.600-07:00

I came across a recent press release from AusPost CEO, Ahmed Fahour, regarding the upcoming launch of the Australia Post Digital MailBox. It detailed all the normal reasons for a Post Office to be launching a digital mailbox: falling revenues, one billion less letters sent last year compared to 2008 - that kind of thing. But what made me smile was Ahmed’s announcement that Australia

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-35119023309636112372013-07-01T00:57:00.006-07:002013-07-01T01:03:04.324-07:00

There are many things to consider before you start creating a mobile eBill strategy: your competitor just built an app; mobile website optimization is assumed; your co-workers check their mobile email constantly; and all the “kids” these days use text and instant messaging (SMS). With so many options, it’s difficult to find the start line. Let’s consider the most basic of questions: 

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-1213798852706419292013-06-19T05:15:00.000-07:002013-06-19T05:15:07.228-07:00

We have been busy testing some new internal systems over the past month and I realized how a small change can have a profound effect. I see myself as a pretty tech savvy person, but when something as simple as the background color of an application changed, it just did not “feel” right and actually affected my productivity. Now let’s not even talk about the fact that the buttons moved! I was

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251457784612170677.post-13161094505775428412013-06-19T05:05:00.005-07:002013-06-19T05:06:25.354-07:00

Does your customer have to go through a maze to retrieve their eBill? I looked at my billing portfolio this week; I have 4 banking relationships (with different products in each) plus 1 off-shore, 3 utility providers, 3 telco contracts, private health insurance, short term insurance through one insurer and various investments and policies that I run through a broker. That’s a minimum of 14

Striatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17867667548281220320noreply@blogger.com0