Virgin Media Business provides cutting edge communications and media products, expertise and innovative thinking to help UK businesses transform the way they work. Always thinking about how to improve the customer experience, our team recognised that instead of receiving a monthly paper bill, companies would benefit from more regular access to account information, to better manage their budgets.
So in response, Virgin Media Business invited some customers to work with the Technology and Product teams to build a digital alternative to paper bills. The result was an online billing portal that can be customised to meet individual needs providing customers with instant access to their account information, any day, any time.
Not only does the portal improve the customer experience, it is also improving resource efficiency, by reducing the volume of paper used. Paul, Director of Customer Billing told us ‘We are always looking for new ways to become more sustainable. When we realised we were sending out over a million paper bills every year – we quickly saw that using millions of sheets of paper is just not a resource efficient option.’
Following a chat with Phil Stewart, Director of Customer Service at Virgin Media Business, the Sustainability team discovered that, in addition to using social media in his job, Phil is a bit of a YouTube hit. The challenge to Paul and Phil became clear: to make a YouTube hit about the Virgin Media Business switch to online billing.
Drawing on their mutual love of the swinging ‘60s (although Paul admits to preferring Lady Gaga), Paul and Phil decided to tell their story by adapting one of their all time favourite music videos - Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. ‘It’s a classic video!’ says Paul, ‘It’s showing paper and, as we drop the paper, we want to get rid of the paper!’ ‘It’s a really symbolic way of us saying: No more paper!’ adds Phil.
So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, we give you, ‘The Subterranean Paperless Bills’.
To find out more about how Virgin Media Business are leading the way in digital communications innovation for business, visit http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/news__events/business_blog.aspx
Follow Phil on Twitter @i15minutes