…and shares his thoughts on how the industry can shape society.

Following her appearance at the 5^th annual Prepaid Expo USA in Las Vegas, G-T-P’s CEO Helen Child reports on the latest insights from the US prepaid market and Bill Clinton's vision for Prepaid. The Expo has now established itself as one of the leading industry conferences a forum to share ideas, swap best practices and to scope new product innovations using a combination of the latest technology, research data and practical application.

“Just a week after his angioplasty operation Bill Clinton delivered the keynote address at Prepaid Expo 2010. He held his audience captivated for a well over an hour; an inspiring orator, passionate and araldite with the command of the facts that you would expect from the 42^nd President of the United States. To use an Americanism – he was truly awesome. Though he looked frail, he certainly had not lost any of his legendary charm.

Healthcare and humanitarian aid to Haiti are his overwhelming drivers. He shared his philosophy and perspective on how these and other political issues could be addressed by applying the answer two powerful questions:

1. Government typically spend too much time and resources debating the issues of “what are we going to do?” and “how much should we spend on it?”
2. It spends far too little time on the important issue on “how will we do whatever we’ve decided to do, so we have the maximum impact?”

An approach that could equally be applied to business too!

Turning to the issue of how the prepaid payments industry could make a technological contribution to important societal issues, he offered six broad ideas:

1. Use general purpose cards to reduce the costs paid by some 35 million Americans who utilise relatively expensive “alternative financial services” today
2. Help the healthcare industry become efficient and transparent by reducing the overall administrative burden and paper flow in that business
3. Use prepaid cards to educate young people on financial management issues and raise the overall level of financial literacy in the US
4. Provide modern financial services to people who live in remote and isolated communities all around the world
5. Improve the efficiency and control of disaster relief efforts and payments through the use of prepaid cards
6. Help move the country in the direction of “electronic accounts” and reduce the amount of paper and waste typically generated by financial accounts 

Capitalising on the upstream.
The recession certainly shaped the pace of market development. Long gone are the intriguing and slightly wacky applications for technology – it is practical, cost effective and targeted applications that are being ruthlessly used to drive programme volumes. Some of the key predictions from the Expo for the future certainly have great resonance with G-T-P’s straight-talking, forward-thinking philosophy:

Mobile Technology…no longer “next generation”.
Retailers on the other side of the pond aren’t just talking about using mobile technology as a communications tool with their customers, they are delivering it. Most prepaid programmes use text messaging to confirm despatch of cards and balance enquires and although few have a totally integrated CRM package that using card holder transaction data can drive footfall and change buyer behaviour habits – in simple terms increase customer spend – the conference highlighted that the market is rapidly moving towards this.

Virtual Gift Cards…making prepaid “green”.
With the rise of e-marketing, social media and everything electronic, virtual Gift Cards or e-Vouchers are set to become the next big trend in prepaid, and an effective way to truly engage with customers. What’s more, the Expo highlighted the environmental advantages of Virtual Gift Cards – offering all the benefits of prepaid without the plastic.

Loyalty programmes…a business systems tool.
It was debated that badly managed programmes contribute to loyalty fatigue and that smart redemption and a larger share of the mind (as well as the pocket) can be delivered by:

1. Engaging with card holders – by offering a choice of redemption they have to act, therefore are motivated. Interestingly, the data shows that whilst choice of redemption is the first step, the choice in order of reward priority is: 

• Prepaid Visa or MasterCard - the ultimate choice and not limited by a catalogue
• A Closed Loop Prepaid Card – i.e. redirecting spend to the retailers’ store
• Promotional pricing offers (accounting for less than 10% of redemptions)

2. A clear message – less functionality and smarter communication.
3. Using the programme data - the biggest challenge seems to be to engage clients to look, analyse and use their data to drive sales.  Heart-breakingly, an overwhelming percentage of programmes just languish, not reaching their full potential as some of the obvious messages are missed…an easy one to fix.

State of the prepaid market.
As the economy begins to move forward (and upward), it is evident that prepaid DOES have a significant role to play in driving cost-savings and efficiency. In practical terms this means engaging at grass roots and LISTENING to what your customers want.”