We know that e-billing is less expensive, more secure, and more environmentally responsible that paper billing. But we were a little bit surprised by thye results of Aspen Marketing's study on a company that gave customers the options of using EIPP or paper billing.

The study, which looked at records of 8 million customers at a large corporation, compared customers who chose online invoicing with those who chose to pay their bills by mail. This large study turned up some statistically significant differences between the two groups. 

First, e-bill users are more faithful. Paper bill users were 12.5 times more likely to leave for another service. Among those who had automatic recurring bills, the number was even higher -- they were 14% more faithful. Even though these consumers chose their method of payment, it's possible that e-invoices were convenient enough to give consumers a more positive feeling about the company -- perhaps without their analyzing the feeling much.

Second, those who chose electronic invoicing are 35% more likely to pay their bills on time. Those who used an automatic recurring bill were a whopping 86% more likely to pay those bills on time. That was no surprise to us. Study after study -- and the experiences of our clients, too -- show that quicker turnaround on payments is a primary benefit for e-invoicing.

Here was a result we did find surprising: electronic bill users buy 20% more products than those who stick with paper bills. It's possible that more affluent consumers are less resistant to e-invoicing, but the study didn't find any significant differences between the two groups apart from their billing choice.

Again, the overall sense of convenience may just give these consumers a happy feeling about companies that offer the electronic payment option.

Shouldn't your company be one of those companies?