eDelivery – Pull vs. Push
Almost anything that is mailed can be delivered by email. There are two approaches to eDelivery which we can offer. Deciding on offering PUSH or PULL (or both) delivery channels will depend on your client profile, objectives and budget.
Conventional eDelivery (Pull or portal approach)
Emails are sent with a message that a statement or invoice is ready. The recipient then clicks on a link to find the document on the portal (entering a user name and password to access their account).
Portals are great for:
- Sharing account information and eBilling
- Making historical documents available to customers
- Enabling customer self-service
PUSH– an eMail with an Attachment
The PUSH eDelivery approach mimics the paper world. Documents/mail are sent to email boxes instead of physical mailboxes:
- Documents are encrypted and attached to an email.
- In the body of the email are instructions on how to open (decrypt) the attachment
- A shared secret is used to open (decrypt) the attachment
- Information that both the recipient and sender know, requiring no predefined user name or password.
- This double layer of security (access to the email inbox and the shared secret) has passed the scrutiny of the toughest compliance and security teams
The strengths of PUSH delivery (sending the document as an attachment to an email) are:
- High customer adoption rates (as high as 12% incremental the first year)
- Targeted advertising and cross selling
- Rapid growth of electronic payments through the PDF (up to 42% of customers pay through the PDF)
Companies looking to maximize paper suppression should seriously consider having a multichannel approach, including both PULL and PUSH. According to research from InfoTrends, mail recipients prefer PUSH to PULL three to one. When you see paperless adoption plateauing, adding a PUSH channel is the next step to becoming best in class in eDelivery and eBilling.
