The post has been a vital link between most organisations and their customers for years. From banks sending statements to utility providers sending bills, consumers are used to receiving communication through their letterbox, and recent research by Royal Mail has shown that many have even stated that they'd rather receive direct mail than no mail at all. This strong emotional bond with post shouldn't be underestimated, especially with the growth in new communication channels such as the internet and email. In fact, many organisations are missing a trick when interacting with their customers by assuming that new channels are the route most customers will prefer.
With the growth in internet and email usage many organisations, including banks and utility providers, have made dedicated moves to service their customers through these online channels. All of the main high street banks now offer online services, allowing us to check our balance and manage our money through the web, and some utility providers are embracing this technology by setting up internet services to enable their customers to manage their bills via email. This is undoubtedly good news for consumers, as they have an additional selection of channels to receive communication through; but let's not get carried away. Any organisation thinking its customers would prefer online channels in absence of paper-based communication should think twice.
Electronic channels of course represent a cost effective communication tool, and give customers additional choice in how and when they actually want to be communicated with. However, recent research commissioned by Royal Mail and carried out by the Henley Centre has uncovered the importance of paper-based communication, and consumer reactions to the prospect of statements and bills becoming exclusively electronic.
Almost one in three of those questioned confirmed postal communication so important that they would switch bank or utility providers if they stopped receiving statements and bills in the mail from them. Many also cited paper-based correspondence as vital in helping them to organise their finances, with 61% keeping paper statements for at least a year, and 64% using these to check their financial affairs. Even with the advent of email, half of all respondents who used internet banking stated they received so many emails that they didn't have time to read them all, and two-thirds felt receiving confidential information such as a bank statement was more secure through the post than by email.
It seems that trust is a massive factor for consumers wanting to keep paper bills and statements, as 81% admitted keeping posted correspondence to ensure no entries could be changed after the event, and that they had a permanent record of their finances.
From these findings, we can not only make the assumption that consumers do want to receive financial and billing communication through the post, but that their trust and loyalty to the bank or utility provider in question is to some extent based on the postal communication they have with them. If such a high number of consumers would go to the extreme of changing banks if they weren't able to receive postal communication, then we can begin to uncover the importance of this channel, and the potential it has for marketing purposes.
The Henley research has revealed an intrinsic link between satisfaction with paper-based communication, and the consumer's response to marketing messages that arrive in the same envelope. Almost half of all respondents glance at inserts they receive with their bill or statement, and 23% said they had acted on marketing material they had received in this way, and had gone on to purchase a product or service. A further 40% expressed an interest in receiving enhance statements from their banks, that included offers that were relevant to them.
Statements have always been an important method of communication between banks and their customers. With the systematic closure of high street branches and the shift to communication through call centres and the internet, statements remain close to consumers' hearts, and are increasingly perceived as a form of personal contact. Fundamentally, this emotional bond with the post simply cannot be ignored, or organisations will risk customer satisfaction and loyalty, which could be hugely damaging to the future of their business.
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