By Alex Leslie, Director of Billing and Customer Experience, TM Forum

Billing people have known for some time that billing is integral to customer experience. But it has been a hard job to persuade others, who for a long time have believed that Billing is to blame, and that all the sins of the company can be laid at Billing’s door.

This view is despite the fact that the bill is the most regular communication between the customer and the service provider. I have spent several years trying to persuade people just how fundamentally important billing is to an organization and how much it can support marketing efforts.

However, the other day I was at a conference about Mobile Entertainment, and one particular part of the day made me smile. The chairman of a panel discussion asked each of the panelists – marketing types from service providers, content and media companies – what they would like for their birthdays. All of them answered ‘free data’ or even bundled rates for data.

When asked why, all of the panelists answered that charging for data was confusing the customer. Although it has been a long time arriving, there is now a solid, customer focused reason for network operators to provide ‘free’ data.

Clarity.

Customers need clarity from their bills and therefore from their service provider. If they are faced with charges for content and then charges for ‘data,’ confusion reigns, and the result is unhappy customers.

What encouraged me was that Marketing now seems to understand how important the bill is to the customer experience. In some companies, there are even strategies being put in place to transform the bill into a ‘value statement’ – a move that takes the bill away from being a demand for money towards being a vehicle that shows the value of the service being offered and a mechanism for upselling and cross selling.

It is for this reason that a new Initiative has been launched within TM Forum. The Billing and Customer Experience Initiative is tasked with looking at all issues that affect the customer experience, and particularly Billing.

The foundation for this new Initiative comes from the GBA. The GBA itself has been dissolved as a brand and this new Initiative has been formed instead.

One big difference between the Billing and Customer Experience Initiative and the GBA is that the new Initiative is open to all members of TM Forum, whereas the GBA required an additional fee to become involved. If you would like more information, please visit www.globalbilling.org or email me at aleslie@tmforum.org.