E-Bill Adoption Strategies That Actually Work

What does it actually take to move customers from paper to paperless? In this episode of Experience Better: The CX Podcast by KUBRA, we're sharing highlights from our recent webinar, Navigating the E-Bill Currents, featuring Lindsey Parham from City of Charlotte and KUBRA's own Candice Merrifield. Hear how one of the fastest-growing cities in the country grew e-bill adoption, what barriers are standing between utilities and higher digital enrollment, and five proven strategies to overcome them. Whether you're just getting started or looking to accelerate your existing efforts, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you drive paperless adoption while keeping the customer experience front and center. Tune in and find out what's really working.

Listen to the full podcast episode or read the detailed transcript below.

Episode Transcript:

The transcript has been edited for clarity and readability while maintaining the original content and intent of the speakers.

Cali Johnston:

Hi everyone, and welcome to Experience Better: The CX Podcast by KUBRA. I’m your guest host, Cali Johnston, Senior Product Marketing Manager here at KUBRA.

For today’s episode, we’re sharing highlights from our most recent webinar, Navigating the E-Bill Currents, where we had the chance to sit down with our client, Charlotte Water and the City of Charlotte.

E-bill adoption is one of those topics that almost every utility is thinking about right now. The cost savings are clear. The environmental impact matters. But as we all know, moving customers from paper to digital isn’t just about turning on a feature. It’s about habits, trust, communication, and making the experience feel simple.

In the clips you’re about to hear, Candice Merrifield, Senior Client Success Manager with KUBRA and Lindsey Parham, Billing Manager for the City of Charlotte, talk through what’s really driving adoption, what’s getting in the way, and what’s actually worked for Charlotte as they’ve grown their e-bill engagement over time.

If you’re thinking about how to increase digital adoption while keeping the customer experience front and center, this conversation is full of practical insight.

Let’s get into it. To start, Candice sets the stage by breaking down why e-bill adoption is about more than just flipping a digital switch.

What Is E-Bill Adoption and Why It Matters for Utilities

Candice Merrifield:

Today, we're going to focus on the currents shaping e-bill adoption. Utilities understand the benefits, but adoption isn't driven by technology alone. It is influenced by customers' habits, trust, awareness, and ease of use.

Before we discuss solutions, it's important to recognize what's getting in the way. These challenges are common across the industry, and naming them is the first step of overcoming them.

Beyond the environmental upside, cost savings remain one of the strongest drivers of paperless adoption.

Chartwell's 2024 Billing Industry Benchmarks shows that paper bills cost utilities an average of 0.60 to 0.69 dollars each to produce, compared to an average of 0.01 to 0.09 dollars per e-bill. The difference is material. Switching from paper to electronic delivery can reduce e-bill costs up to 98%.

In other words, paper bill costs roughly 60 to 70 cents per customer each month, while e-bills cost only pennies, savings that compound quickly at scale and translate into meaningful operational efficiency.

Cali:

While the cost savings are compelling, the real story goes deeper than dollars and cents. In this next clip, she shifts the focus to what’s really standing in the way of adoption: the habits, perceptions, and trust factors that utilities have to navigate every day.

What’s Holding Back E-Bill Adoption? Top Utility Challenges

Candice: 

Now let's get to the challenge all utilities are facing today when navigating e-bill adoption.

Number one, habits anchored in paper.

E-bill adoption continues to rise, but customers who receive both paper and paperless bills remain a stubborn gap to close.

Chartwell's 2024 survey for billing shows that a slim majority of customers, 53%, still receive a monthly paper statement.

For many, paper bill is simply a habit.

Customers have relied on paper for decades. They're familiar, tangible, and reassuring. Research also shows that paper bills serve as a physical reminder to pay, and some customers still prefer them for record-keeping or tax purposes.

These concerns aren't irrational. They're both practical and emotional.

Number two, perceived risk or distrust of digital.

Concerns about privacy, email reliability, and online security can make customers hesitant to go paperless. About 11% of consumers are concerned about security.

Research shows adoption stays limited unless e-billing platforms build trust and clearly demonstrate strong security. Trust is also tied to reliability.

Reliability matters too. About 21% of end users worry they will miss a bill or payment if they go paperless.

And even when digital options are safe and dependable, perception matters. Unless customers feel confident that e-bills won't disrupt their routine or increased risk, hesitation remains.

Cali:

Candice then walks us through two more barriers that utilities are up against.

The third one is low awareness, or really, unclear value. A lot of customers just don't switch to e-billing because nobody's given them a compelling enough reason to. And here's the interesting thing — more than half of consumers know e-billing is an option, but way fewer actually sign up. So the awareness is there, it's just not translating into action.

Then the fourth challenge is friction in the sign-up process itself. Even if someone wants to enroll, extra steps, confusing prompts, password resets, or unclear instructions can totally derail it. And research backs this up. When the process feels like a hassle, people just bail.

So the big takeaway here? Getting people to want e-billing is only half the battle. If the sign-up experience isn't smooth and straightforward, adoption is going to stall, no matter how good your messaging is.

Now, when a utility tackles these challenges head-on? Up next, we hear from Lindsey Parham from the City of Charlotte, who shares how Charlotte Water has been driving e-bill adoption in a rapidly growing community — and the real progress they've made along the way.

How Charlotte Water Is Driving E-Bill Adoption in a Fast-Growing City

Lindsey Parham:

Charlotte is a city shaped by momentum. We're one of the largest or the fastest growing communities in the country, drawing new residents with our vibrant energy, diverse neighborhoods, and spirit of innovation. We're a city that's constantly renewing ourselves and always moving forward.

Charlotte Water stands at the center of that movement. As one of the largest public water and wastewater utilities in North Carolina, we provide clean and reliable water to more than a million people each day.

Our mission is simple, to deliver safe, high quality water services with resilience, innovation, and a deep sense of community partnership.

As the city continues to grow, so do our challenges, aging infrastructure, rising demand, and evolving customer expectations.

Charlotte Water continues to plan and adapt with care, focusing on ensuring a dependable water future for generations to come.

And that brings us here today. With Charlotte expanding and our customer needs ever changing, it's important to reimagine how residents engage with their utility, including how they receive and interact with their bills.

Every year, Charlotte Water issues nearly 3.8 million bills, and that's a tide that rises about 2% annually as our community continues to grow. With volume increasing year after year, the value of efficient digital-first communication becomes even more vital.

The shift toward e-billing began for us in 2010, when Charlotte Water first started tracking our e-bill adoption. And since that time, the arc has continued to be steady and hopeful with increasing an average of 2.8% each year, building momentum like a dependable current.

When we look back over the years, we can see just how far the tide has risen. In 2020, e-bill adoption set at 29.7 percent, and by 2025, it climbed to 44.6 percent, nearly a 15-point rise. These numbers tell a quiet but compelling story. Our customers are increasingly willing to shift their billing experience into calmer digital waters.

How Small CX Improvements Drive E-Bill Adoption

Cali:

Charlotte’s story is a great example of steady, sustained progress. Nearly half of their customers are now enrolled in e-billing, and that didn't happen overnight. It's been this gradual build, shaped by system improvements, a growing community, and just consistently putting digital options in front of people.

It’s also notable that adoption didn’t hinge on one major campaign.

They focused on making things a little easier at each step of the customer journey. They prioritized a smoother portal access, secure digital bill delivery, more flexible notification preferences, better payment options - and together these things make the whole digital experience feel a lot more seamless and intuitive. 

And over time, those small, incremental changes added up to real, measurable growth in e-bill adoption, and a meaningful reduction in print and mail volume too.

It's a good reminder that you don't always need a big moment. Sometimes it's just about consistently making the experience better, step by step.

Lindsey:

As of November first, more than 151,000 customers receive their bill electronically each month. That's 46% of our entire customer base. It's a strong indicator that many residents are already comfortable with navigating these digital channels, even as there is still a wide horizon of opportunity for us.

What's worked for us so far? We had a CDP upgrade in 2017, and that led to a 4.7% increase. In 2020, as most of us know, was COVID, and that changed the way many of us already do business, and that was a 3.4% increase.

Right now, the only advertisement we do is a message on our return envelope to remind customers of the option of e-billing.

Historically, the growth has been mostly organic.

We have an average of 17,000 new citizens each year, and that translates to 1.9% increase in accounts. So that drives our numbers up as well.

5 Proven Strategies to Boost Paperless Billing Enrollment

Cali:

So in this next part, Candice zooms out a little from Charlotte's story and shifts gears: moving from insight into action. And she makes a really important point: e-bill adoption isn't about finding that one magic tactic. It's really about a series of intentional, connected choices that work together.

From there, she walks us through five proven strategies utilities can use to help customers make the move to paperless billing. 

Here’s strategy #1 and #2.

Candice:

Industry benchmarks show utilities take many paths, but the ones with the strongest adoption share one advantage: they make e-billing feel simple.

When an e-bill is simple to receive, easy to understand, and easy to trust, customers don't just enroll. They stay enrolled. This is how you build confidence at scale.

The right tools eliminate confusion before it ever reaches the customer. So the experience feels smooth and dependable in the background, and adoption follows.

Customers win, and utilities also win, when they choose e-bill creation and delivery tools that are reliable, intuitive, and built to grow with demand.

The takeaway is clear: remove friction and customers move forward.

Because customers don't understand or interact with systems, they experience moments. A bill arrives, they glance at it, they decide what to do next. Great tools take that moment and make it feel effortless instead of uncertain.

So number two, make an offer they can't refuse.

Incentives aren't bribes. They're a signal of value.

Incentives are one of the most effective ways to encourage customers to switch when they're framed with intention. They work best when it feels thoughtful and not transactional.

Depending on regulations and business rules, here are just some examples: a bill credit, a small reward, charity donation, planting a tree, or a sweepstake entry that acknowledges the customer's time, effort, and choice.

At their core, incentives answer one question. Why should I do this now?

That's why the strongest offers are clear, easy to understand, and paired with a seamless enrollment experience. The goal is to remove hesitation, not create pressure.

You want customers to feel good about saying yes and stay enrolled.

Customers make dozens of micro decisions every day. A well-framed incentive says, we see you. We've made this worth your while.

Cali:

Candice then moves into number three: leveraging every touchpoint.

Adoption rarely happens all at once. It tends to build gradually, across the different ways customers interact with their utility. Whether that’s the website, email communications, FAQs, bill messaging, or short videos. Each of those moments is a chance to reinforce the option of going paperless.

The goal isn’t repetition for its own sake; it’s consistency. When the message shows up clearly and regularly, and it’s easy to act on, e-billing starts to feel less like a change and more like a natural next step.

Number four is playing the social media long game.

Social media isn’t about a single post driving immediate results. It’s about maintaining a steady presence where customers are already spending time. When helpful, straightforward messaging shows up in their everyday feeds, the concept of e-billing becomes familiar, and familiarity makes action easier when the timing feels right.

And that leads into number five.

If consistent messaging helps reinforce the idea of e-billing, video helps make it tangible. In this final clip, Candice talks about why video can be such a powerful tool. Especially when customers have questions or hesitations.

Candice:

Number five, use versatile videos to guide the way. Show, don't tell, especially when confidence matters.

Video is one of the most effective ways to build understanding and confidence, revealing 78% of consumers prefer to use video to learn something new. 68% of consumers often prefer video when learning something new, especially if they have questions or hesitations.

Short, clear clips can walk customers through enrollment, highlight benefits, and address common concerns before they become barriers. By showing how simple the process is, videos reduce uncertainty and help prevent e-billing sign-up abandonment.

Videos turn abstract benefits into visible ease. 99% of marketers report that video increases user consumption and comprehension.

Something to take away is when customers can see the path forward, they are far more likely to take it.

Why Awareness, Trust, and Simplicity Drive Digital Billing Success

Cali: 

E-bill adoption rises when utilities prioritize awareness, clarity, consistency, and trust. It’s not about forcing change or pushing customers into digital channels before they’re ready. It’s about creating an experience that feels simple and supportive.

When customers understand the value, and when communication is steady and clear — adoption follows.

If you’d like to hear the full conversation, you can find the complete webinar replay in the Resources section at KUBRA.com. Or you can view our E-Book, The E-Billing Compass: Driving Meaningful E-Bill Adoption. We’d encourage you to check it out for even more insights from Charlotte Water and the team.

Thanks so much for listening to Experience Better: The CX Podcast by KUBRA. We’ll see you next time.