Gen Y demanding more of utilities
The number of consumers paying their bills from smartphones and tablets is growing significantly, according to a survey from Fiserv, Inc., and a growing number of young consumers taking on bill paying responsibilities will influence how billers are innovating and offering services based on changing consumer preferences.
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| Click to enlarge. Credit: Fiserv |
According to Fiserv, Gen Y prefers a variety of channels and immediate payment options, and uses the mobile channel to manage billing and payment more than other generations.
Mobile bill payment usage doubled from 8 million U.S. online households in 2012 to 16 million in 2013, driven primarily by smartphone owners, among whom mobile bill payment surged 150 percent, according to Fiserv. Consumers who pay bills using their mobile device do so primarily for its convenience (70 percent), anytime access (55 percent) and time savings (49 percent), the research shows.
One can conclude from the research that it is important for utilities to have a mobile-optimized website for bill payment as mobile-optimized bank and biller websites are the most popular choice when paying bills with a smartphone, although apps for billers and banks are also popular and growing rapidly.
Utility customers are increasingly turning to their smartphones to pay utility bills, access real-time usage data, and more. In fact, Con Edison has seen mobile payments nearly triple over the last year. Last year, ConEd experienced a 1200 percent increase in mobile web traffic and more than 80,000 visits to their mobile site during Hurricane Sandy.
In response to the increasing mobile demand among customers, Con Edison is working to improve its mobile users' experience in 2014 with the integration of a location-aware storm center featuring social integration, weather alerts and an outage map, an optimized tablet experience featuring push notifications, and deeper social integration with Facebook and Twitter, which have become primary sources of customer contact and satisfaction.
Utilities don't have to count out traditional payment channels just yet, but should support emerging channels.
"While new bill payment channels such as mobile and tablet are coming on strong, traditional channels remain in use, creating a need for billers to support an ever-growing set of billing and payments, channels and payment types," said Jardon Bouska, division president, Biller Solutions, Fiserv. "Americans, particularly Gen Y, are hungry for multiple options for digital bill presentment and payment."
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