Making print and electronic work together offers a powerful way to deliver communications in the digital and physical world. 
I’ve always believed that the customer should have the choice in whether they receive a paper or digital copy, of any type of information.
Offering the end user a multichannel service gives your customers the choice between taking up the offer of a digital or paper copy.
Imagine my surprise at a recent networking event when someone asked me if I’d heard of the Keep Me Posted campaign.
‘The what I said?’
With twenty five years in the transactional print and mailing business I had to admit embarrassingly that I wasn’t aware of it.
The Keep Me Posted campaign is committed to changing the attitudes of UK businesses and service providers about giving the consumer the choice between choosing a paper or digital bill or statement.
You can read more about it here.
It ties in very nicely with what I regularly write about and that is giving customers the option to choose paper or digital without penalising them.
Multichannel presentation of documents does just that by giving the customer the option to receive either a digital or physical copy.
Here’s a video to show how multichannel works:
What I particularly like about the Keep Me Posted campaign is that 
they are not advocating one media over the other but rather allowing the customer to choose what best suits their needs.
Happy customer = long term happy customer.
Keep Me Posted is a partnership of representatives from charities, interest groups and business who have united to stand up for the consumer’s right to choose how they are contacted by banks, financial institutions, utility companies, media companies and service providers.
Fewer and fewer businesses are providing no choice how the customer receives their bills and statements with many forcing customers to accept an electronic document.
I recently bought a 4G MIFI so I can access the internet anytime anywhere.
My first bill was in paper format and the accompanying letter told how to register online to access my bill.
The process was not an easy one and as I am very familiar with the providers website it is not easy to navigate even for someone like me who spends eight + hours in front of a PC.
Imagine an elderly person or someone not too familiar with online registration, navigating the same site because they too have a monthly contract and need to download their monthly bill?
The statistics make for interesting reading:-
16 million consumers aged over fifteen don’t have basic online skills [Source: Go On UK]
40% of UK adults say that the removal of paper statements could seriously affect their finances [Source: Opinium]
5.2 million households in the UK do not have internet access [Source: Office for National Statistics]
You might think how can you possibly forget to pay a visa card bill?
If there is no choice how you receive your statement or bill, viewing an electronic statement irrespective of the email reminder you receive, it is easy to overlook paying that bill.
We are inundated with emails and receiving a paper statement is a sure fire way of reminding us to take action with that bit of paper.
My guess is even if you do receive the electronic version you end up printing off the document as a reminder to action it.
81% of UK adults want to choose how they receive their information.[Source: Opinium]
4 out of 5 people are more likely to read statements available both online and by post.
81% of UK adults do not like it when companies take away their right to choose how they are communicated with. [Source: Office for National Statistics]
Only last week we learned that the paper driving license that we are so familiar with is to be withdrawn and the information will be stored electronically. The DVLA claim that not only will it reduce the red tape it will be cheaper for motorists.
Given that the DVLA reissued 445,000 lost paper licences in 2014 at a charge of £20.00, that’s almost a £1,000,000, I would of thought that there is a very good incentive to keep paper licences.
I await with bated breath when my road tax is due for renewal.
I am unconvinced, there are some things that should just be ‘paper’.
Online information is better, yes I said it.
BUT, there is a caveat, paper based communications are better understood and we the consumer are more likely to recall what is on that piece of paper than what we read online.
The organisations Digital Print Management work with tend to have a better understanding of the importance of giving their customers choice because we educate the benefits of paper and digital.
It shouldn’t be about PAPER VS DIGITAL it should be PAPER AND/OR DIGITAL, a subtle difference but one that will ensure your customers are kept happy receiving information from you in a format that they’ve agreed to and not one that has been forced upon them.
[Statistics courtesy of Keep Me Posted]
What do you think?