Big oops! Melissa Read, Ph.D. and I talked today about the 300-page iPhone bill a blogger received and then shared with the world to encourage e-billing. As a former Cingular employee, I cringed to hear this story–and not just for environmental reasons. Receiving a 300-page bill not only kills a lot of trees, it kills the customer experience.

I hope this publicity doesn’t overshadow Cingular/AT&Ts other industry-leading efforts to provide outstanding customer care. When I worked for Cingular, I led a revamp of the online and in-store welcome experience, especially the Cingular Service Summary and welcome collateral for all customers. Changes to the bill itself may be in order, too.

Even without a major redesign of the bill itself, AT&T could address this issue a few ways. Most people are interested in bill details only when there is a problem–not all the time. Some thoughts…

• Clarify messaging to new customers about their bill format.
• Make the default billing setting for customers online, with the option to change to print.
• For print bill recipients
• Make the default setting a summary, with the option for detailed billing or an occasional request for a detailed hard copy.
• Communicate to customers that bill details are always available online, and make details easy to find.
• If a detailed billing customer’s bill is going to exceed a certain page number, then notify the customer with an option to receive it by e-mail or online instead.
• Consider providing print details only for charges that exceed the customer’s normal amount. For instance, detail only the text messages exceeding the plan’s included number.