I work for a small telecoms company (450 staff, £60m pa turnover) and
we want to re-design our bills and, potentially, forms that we give to
customers to apply for services.

What I want to know is, what resources are available online to help me
design effectvie bills and forms?

I'm interested in online discussions/forums, free information sites
and companies that may provide such services. I'm also more interested
in UK companies than those in other English speaking countries.

Of course, I'm curious why you are redesigning your bills.  Assuming
that its not just because it hasn't been redesigned in a while (which
is a poor but common reason companies redesign bills)...all I can say
is please don't take this change lightly. I've heard that PG&E took
over a year and a half, and spent a huge amount of money on
redesigning their monthly utility bills. In addition to design work
and all of the things associated with reprogramming their systems to
merge and generate the new bills, they also spent quite a bit on focus
groups regarding ease-of-use and design preferences.

Everything from data organization to postal requirements to font sizes
needs to be considered. The biggest problem is that you are changing
more than aesthetics....you are changing the level of familiarity the
customer has with the form. Anticipate a large volume increase of
calls to customer service when 1) the bills aren't recognized (and
payments are therefore late) and 2) when people can't tell how much
they owe or when. Most humans do not like change.

If you really do NEED to change the layout (for a solid business
purpose not just because you are bored with it) I suggest you gather a
portfolio of bills from competing companies and take the best elements
of each and integrate them into your own design. Make sure to take
into consideration any feedback you've had from customers regarding
your current design.  If you are planning on inserting advertising
into the bill itself, I suggest that you make the amount due and due
date stand out just as well, or people may not recognize it as their
bill at all.

Hmmmmm.  Can you tell I've "been there, done that"? :-)

Good luck.
Cheers
Margi (Not a Google researcher.)

Margi

Thanks for your comments - they're really useful - if somewhat
daunting!

We're redesigning our bills for a number of 'hard' and 'soft' reasons,
the top three being:

1) To improve customer service. Customers, particularly businesses
with complex accounts, have regularly complained that they do not
understand the information presented to them in their bill as well as
they would like.

2) To improve cash flow within the business. As I'm sure you know,
confusing bills lead to customer enquiries and then late payments.
This is a double-whammy on the cost front because we lose time on the
payment itself and have to invest to manage customer support services

3) To differentiate ourselves from the competition. Our local telco
market is only just being opened up to full competition (we're the
incumbent) and we beleive that billing is a key 'touch point' with our
customers. If we can make receipt and payment of bills as
'pleasurable' an experience as possible (as much as parting with money
can be!), then we expect to see improved customer retention. As well
as redesingning the hardcopy 'paper' bills, we're also looking to
introduce bill presentation and payment online - all integrated of
course!! ;o)

Regards
Dave