Imagine you’re a landscape technician working on a hot day. There’s sweat dripping off of you, and you’re trying to write a note on the customer’s paper bill.
Chances are you’re writing the shortest note possible and, in your hurry to get on with your route, the note is illegible as well. This causes the customer to call into the office and complain that they can’t read it.
“There is no positive to it,” says Brad Leahy, vice president of Blades of Green, based in Edgewater, Maryland. “It’s just sloppy. The customer isn’t happy. The company doesn’t like it either because they want good notes. They want good communication.”
Leahy argues that paperless billing is a smarter, more efficient way to do business.
Reasons to Switch to Paperless Billing
Paperless billing is one way to indicate you operate a modern business. Leahy notes when you leave behind a piece of carbon paper, it can feel old and outdated.
“Try to make sure you’re meeting the modern demands of customers and not getting too comfortable with what you like,” Leahy says.
Leahy adds that implementing paperless billing enables you to be ready for whatever is next in technology.
“You don’t want to be learning how to ride a bike when everyone else is flying down the speedway,” Leahy says.
Leahy says that the convenience of paperless billing makes it a win for the customer, the employee and the company, as you can access it anywhere, anytime.
“Assuming you have the software now, it allows your customers access that information in real time, quickly,” Leahy says. “In our case, as soon as we leave that yard, they’re getting an email with a service summary of what was done, and it’s very immediate and quick.”
Leahy notes this allows them to upsell by including pictures or videos of an issue they found on the property. He says the paperless billing also creates a better experience for employees as they aren’t stuck having to write out notes in their truck.
There are also savings by switching to paperless billing. Blades of Green previously had printers in every truck.
“There’s a minimum of 5% savings,” Leahy says. “The real savings or the real benefit is in the accountability to the technician to make sure they’re putting in good notes, the ease of the fact that you can keep your customers happier when you communicate with them clearly and on a regular basis.”
Leahy says they require their technicians to include a ‘wow’ statement of some sort, which could be anything from ‘Your rose bushes are looking beautiful’ or ‘Go Gators’ if they have a Florida Gators flag in the yard.
“Just something personal, because you don’t see people as like you used to,” Leahy says. “Something that just brings it back to this isn’t a computer-generated note.”
The Process of Transitioning to Paperless
Leahy says going to paperless billing was one of the easiest transitions they’ve ever done because everyone wanted to move away from paper.
He did take the time to think through their communication plan and cadence before making the transition. Leahy says it is critical to communicate early and often with your customers when you are planning to switch to paperless billing.
He recommends providing explanations to clients, so they understand why the change is beneficial for them and for your company.
Be sure to check with your state authority to determine if you are eligible to switch to paperless billing and if there are any specific requirements.
The first element needed in order to switch to paperless billing is mobile-capable software. Then, you need to ensure that you are collecting your clients’ email addresses and credit card information. Leahy says they made a point to collect the email addresses of everyone who called into the office.
When Blades of Green started offering a 5% discount for customers who switched to autopay, they were able to collect both their credit card number and their email address.
“Amazing enough, as soon as we stopped leaving invoices, we got all the remaining credit cards we couldn’t get,” Leahy says.
Leahy says that typically, 95% of your residential customers will be happy to switch to paperless, and 5% won’t want to do it. He recommends making paperless billing something your customers can opt out of, rather than opt in. Any new clients should automatically be opted into paperless billing.
For the small subset of clients who choose to opt out, Leahy says they flag these accounts and run a report so they can print out what services were completed and mail out a batch every day. He says it’s less than 10 a day right now.
“It just depends on how many customers, but it’s very few considering how many stops we’re doing a day,” Leahy says.
Overall, Blades of Green encountered very little pushback from their customer base.
He recommends that anyone starting their business automatically begin with paperless billing.
“It’s a bigger win than you think it’s going to be,” Leahy says. “Most people think, ‘Well, I’m going to save on paper. I’m going to save on the printer. I’m going to save on the bags. I’m going to save on material costs.’ I think the win is in the employee experience and the customer experience. Those are the two most expensive things, getting customers and keeping employees, and this just makes their lives, everyone’s life, a little bit easier.”
