Case Study: SunTrust Quantifies The Profitability Impact Of eBill Usage

Bank of America enlightened the industry in 2002 with its landmark control-group-based time series study that proved that customers who used online bill pay were more profitable than customers who did not. SunTrust wanted to ascertain whether the same phenomenon held true for eBill users: Would they have lower attrition rates and higher product ownership and account balances than online bill payers? The results of the SunTrust eBill use study proved that, in fact, eBill users were more profitable than both the average bank customer and online bill payers. But the study also led to an unexpected conclusion. Avid eBill users (those who view three or more bills online per month) outperform casual eBill users (those who view fewer than three bills per month) in attrition rates, product ownership, and balances held. If you think eBill viewing doesn't matter, think again. SunTrust found that the five-year profitability of avid eBill viewers is almost 2.5 times that of the average bank customer.