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Boulder, CO, June 10, 2008 -- According to the latest E SOURCE market research study, 51 percent of internet users in the U.S. and Canada now pay at least one monthly bill online. According to the company, that represents a substantial increase over the results of the company's 2004 research. At that time, only 33 percent of internet users were making online payments. In 2005, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported a relatively small increase -- around 38 percent of Internet users were paying a monthly bill online.
"[O]ur current finding is important because it indicates a major shift in customer behavior over the past four years," said Andrew Heath, director of customer satisfaction services at E SOURCE and one of the new study's authors. He added that the new research also found that "16 percent of the people who have used a utility's interactive voice response (IVR) system have used it to make a monthly payment."
E SOURCE surveyed over 1,000 residential electric and gas utility customers across the U.S. and Canada for this latest research. The results will be analyzed in the 2008 E SOURCE Self-Service Customer Care market research study due to be released in September 2008.
The study provides regional as well as aggregated data and insights on which customers are using utility IVRs and web sites; what self-service features customers are looking for when they use those channels; and whether customers prefer touch-tone or speech-recognition IVRs.
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