How RSS feeds could be used in billing

Summary

As RSS (Really Simple Syndication) subscriptions are more widely used, they will extend into customer's day-to-day lives and become important as people become reluctant to reveal their personal email details, and SPAM filters block billers' valid emails to customers. Customer billing presents a range of RSS opportunities for billers, externally in the customer relationship and internally for staff communication.

Through RSS, customers could be notified when billing events occur (new bills, payments due), and receive tailored offers (permission-based marketing). The RSS channel could be an alternative to a customer's email address, and allow consolidated billing information to flow through one channel accessible from multiple locations.

Internally, billers could use RSS to broadcast details of operational status (e.g. bill cycle completion, mailing delays) or consistent messages corporate-wide (e.g. responses to media reports). RSS could allow interested parties to track new functionality (ideas, products, systems) as it moves from idea, through development and into production. The 'tracking' costs incurred by staff monitoring projects could be reduced by providing a pertinent RSS feed per project to which they can subscribe.

RSS feeds could be customised for the individual (customer), generalised across the corporation (news), be specific to operational systems, or relate only to particular products / business initiatives. The same RSS infrastructure could also support communication amongst internal 'special interest groups'.

What is an RSS feed?

RSS feeds are specially formatted text files that are transmitted across the internet in the same manner as the HTML in web pages. Of the letters in RSS, it is the 'syndication' aspect that allows it both to convey information easily to a wide audience, and to allow individual members of the audience to read multiple feeds using one (software) tool.

Each time a website with an RSS feed is updated, its RSS file is also updated to include details (or the entire content) of the update. Automated software (RSS readers) checks the website's RSS file periodically based on an individual's subscriptions to identify when websites change presenting the updates' details back to the subscriber. The RSS software automates the task of checking each RSS subscription and identifying new entries.

The key difference between HTML and RSS is that HTML's purpose is to convey one website's specially formatted information in its entirety to each person who want to read it, whilst RSS' purpose is to provide a readable format for software to notify many people when changes have been made, and support the collection of these details for later reading by the RSS feeds' subscribers. The key differences of RSS over HTML are 'automated checking' and the 'centralisation of monitored changes' for subsequent reading (use).

The HTML in web pages varies so widely between websites that it is difficult for software to aggregate and present the information from an arbitrary list of websites together for perusal. To monitor one hundred websites, a person must visit each website site in turn and 'detect' when and what changes have been made.

RSS feeds are constructed using special XML formats that support the easy consolidation of feeds from multiple sites by software tools. When sites change the details are conveyed in a standard manner that allows people to identify when and what changes have been made. The RSS feed can contain the full details (content), or a link back to the website where the full text / details are available. Using this approach, a website's RSS feed can contain as much, or as little, information as the context requires.

RSS feeds can be identified by the small, rectangular (usually) orange XML / RSS image on a website (there is one on the purebill homepage), or through a link marked with text such as 'Syndicate this site (XML)'. Many web browsers allow users to subscribe to RSS feeds, with the feeds automatically checked when the customer is connected to the internet. Alternatively, web-based consolidators such as Bloglines can be used. Further information on RSS can be found in its Wikipedia entry.

How could RSS feeds be used in Billing?

Since RSS is a 'broadcast' (one-way) rather than a 'discussion' (two-way) communication channel, its uses are based around notifying recipients of pertinent events. For an RSS feed to be relied upon and used long term, the information supplied must be useful, be requested by the recipient, and be easy to use. Recipients may become reluctant to use RSS if, as happens with email, the channel is abused through the transmission of unwanted advertising or content volume so excessive that requested details are difficult to find.

Since unsubscribing from an RSS feed is as easy as clicking to another website, billers must be careful in selecting the material placed in each RSS feed or customers will stop using them.

Today, customers may not use RSS readers as readily as they do email, but, like email, acceptance and use will grow both as the necessary tools become commonly available, and as a better understanding of how to use the tools filters out into the wider community. RSS readers are already becoming part of the popular web browsers, and 'free' web-based RSS aggregators are also available. e.g. Bloglines.

Web-based tools are useful because customers can use them wherever an internet connection is present. This benefit, like web-based email (e.g. Hotmail), allows a technology (RSS) to be used away from where the customer's computer is located, whether at home, at work or on holiday.

External Uses

Examples of how RSS could be used by customers including:

Electronic bill notification: "....your next bill has been generated - please use this link to sign-in"
Payment reminders: "...just a friendly reminder that your bill is due today, thank you"
Payment receipts: "Thank you: an amount covering your last bill was deducted from your credit card today"
Discounts / Specials: "You asked us to notify you when calls to Hong Kong were on special..."
Credit card reminders: "The expiry date on your credit card is expiring soon, please call (1800 123 456), or sign-in to update your account with your new card's details"
Changes to Terms & Conditions: "Reflecting recent legislative changes regarding privacy, we have updated our standard contract - use this link for a summary of the changes, or click here for an updated copy of the full contract"

Advertising and specials would preferably be permission-based with a default setting that required customers to 'opt-in'. By establishing a workable RSS channel with customers, and carefully maintaining limits on the information provided through the RSS feed, billers could establish an electronic contact point and reduce, over the long-term, the use of paper-based communications.

Internal Uses

Internally, a biller's staff could use RSS feeds to be notified of:

Bill Cycle Status: "Billing cycle 1 completed at 7am on Friday 15-Jul, its mailing will be delayed by one day due to the postal strike, with bills now expected to arrive in customers' letterboxes on Tuesday 19-Jul"
Corporate News: e.g. media announcements of network upgrades and product launches, or the CEO's response to media reports of 'political interference'...
Tracking Business Initiatives: "The 'WonderFeature 2000' upgrade has been approved for development, is targeted for the November 20XX software release, and will be led by Stephen Jones (contact details: (123) 456 7890) - link here for key milestone dates"
Business System News: "Application X will be unavailable from 9-11pm tonight (Thursday 14-Jul) as part of the software upgrade to Version Y.Z of WonderApp"
Competitor Watch: Internal notifications of major competitor events, or individual subscriptions to a competitor's own (external) RSS feeds to receive notification of changes just like their (your) customers do.
Software Release Notifications: "The November 20XX release in Application X was successfully deployed over the weekend with service resumed at 10am. Two minor defects have been identified (link here for details) and are expected to fixed in three days"
Defect Tracking: Investigations have been completed on defect AB123: 300 customers were impacted in postcodes 2000 and 3000, service restoration is expected on Tuesday 19-Jul, brief details have been placed in each customers' RSS feed or sent by email (depending on their indicated preference) notifying them of: the problem's details (refer here for the message text), how to contact our support centre, and our expected service restoral date"

Issues that need to be considered

Whether implementing RSS feeds for internal staff use, or for external customers, a number of 'design' issues need to be considered including:

Security - The biller's existing intranet security could be used to restrict internal RSS feeds based on the internal user's access to specified URLs. External customers could use a secure RSS connection to ensure their privacy. RSS feeds with stronger security (and hence privacy) could supply additional details (e.g. dollar amounts, names, customer numbers), whilst those with less secure connections could just indicate when events have transpired and prompt the customer to sign-in for more detail.

Accessibility / Discoverability - Access to internal RSS feeds across the biller's business could be facilitated by using a central registry and/or by providing RSS feeds as an expected, standard feature of regularly updated intranet web-pages (e.g. notifications, news, projects, documentation repositories).

Communication - External customers provided with their own RSS feed must be notified of their unique feed's details. This could be provided on their bill, over the phone, or by email. Whilst notifying them by email would seem to negate the need for RSS, the customer could access their RSS feed from home, work, when traveling, or on holiday through a web-based aggregator (whilst email may be tied to only one of these locations and inaccessible from the others).

Data Volume - If brief messages are used (usability, relevance), then millions of external customers can be supported with relatively low data volumes. Feeds could be generated automatically for all customers, or only as they are requested (reducing data volumes). Only those RSS feeds that are 'actively' polled will generate data traffic, with those feeds remaining unused by customers occupying just disk space.

Internal RSS feeds generate additional intranet traffic that could cause network congestion. To reduce the possibility and impact of intranet congestion, and since the biller's staff are more likely (than customers) to use a common software suite, staff can configure their local RSS readers to monitor their feeds less frequently (in a manner similar to configuring PC-based email applications to check a centralised email server less frequently).

Infrastructure - For internal use, a biller could repurpose existing blogging software to generate the necessary RSS feeds. Information to be placed into an RSS feed could be posted by users across the biller's intranet. The tools could be supported centrally and would operate with a finite user base (i.e. the number of internal staff). Billers who provide a centralised RSS aggregator will reduce and localise the RSS intranet traffic by reducing the overall number of 'feed checks' performed, and by providing details only as requested like regular intranet sites.

External customers would access their specific RSS feeds using a web-based aggregator (e.g. Bloglines) or their local RSS reader of choice (e.g. web browser). The biller's FAQ should supply details of how to configure popular web-browsers / web-aggregators to use the biller's RSS feeds. By ensuring these details are found easily by customers, the number of phone or email queries for assistance can be reduced. The FAQ details could link to both vendors' websites and general explanations of how RSS works.

Tags: Billing, RSS, Syndication, Communication, Status, Broadcast