We believe a strong bill payment guarantee is crucial, not only to the credibility of your epayments program, but by implication, to your entire online banking offering. CheckFree has offered its logo up for years, but your customers want to know what YOU will do for them; most would prefer to know nothing about CheckFree.

And your guarantee needs to be visible to both online banking users and those just thinking about it. One of the best ways to increase visibility is by creating a "bill-pay guarantee" icon that users can click through to learn more about it.

One of the better examples is at Citibank (inset) on its logon page. When you click on the logo, a small popup appears (click on the thumbnail below):

*

This guarantee has great copy, you can tell the marketing department was heavily involved. Rather than just reiterating the rather droll performance guarantee,* the bank also highlights several benefits:

• No hidden charges, in other words, unlike "free checking," bill pay really is free
• 24/7 service with "fast response"

*Citi's bill-pay guarantee states that payments will be processed within 24-hours and delivered to payees according to the schedule, or the bank will pay for any fees incurred.

--JB