Swiss Orange mandates e-billing while keeping a bit of customer loyalty in mind

Orange has been pushing e-billing for years. As from 1 September 2012, Orange will push on-boarding to the next level. It is interesting to see that Orange doesn’t lay the entire burden of its ambition towards full e-billing with its customers. From our perspective, Swiss Orange has chosen a path that is just a bit more than bluntly mandating e-bills and fining paper statements. Let’s hope this is a trend.

A slightly more elegant e-billing on-boarding approach

So, what is this path that we think is just a tad better, you might ask. Well this is Swiss Orange’s:

1. For the next six months Orange will be offering a double bonus when people switch to e-billing.
2. Customers that opt to change to e-bills will receive a credit of CHF 2.00 per bill for six months.
3. For every customer that chooses e-billing, Orange will invest CHF 5.00 in other eco-friendly activities.
4. In the coming days, Orange will launch a wide-ranging information campaign to inform customers about these changes.

The sad part here is though that Orange customers can still opt to receive paper bills. But as from 1 September, this will cost CHF 2.00 per month (CHF 5.00 for a detailed statement). Now, it would have been so much better if the six months transition period of paper statements wasn’t charged; allowing customers to get used to new situation.

Reasons for Swiss Orange to switch to full e-billing

• Orange sends over 9 million sheets of paper to customers every year in the form of phone bills. Orange “calculated” that over a period of five years, this corresponds to a forest of well over 600 trees.
• E-bills do not have to be transported by motorbike or truck, which avoids CO2 emissions and saves forests. Electronic invoicing is therefore better for the environment than paper bills.
• E-billing also helps to reduce unnecessary costs for Orange. Orange uses these savings to further promote eco-friendly projects and sustainability initiatives.

Question: “Why not provide your customers with a kickback, to let them profit from e-billing as well?”