Even if you’re sending electronic PDFs via push or pull I guarantee you still have customers that either prefers a paper document or you send out statements?
Either way, it takes time to process, print and those few documents.
Do you have a multi-channel mechanism for example you post and email documents?
Do you have staff using their valuable time checking and reconciling matching documents and then manually inserting them into envelopes?
Do you have too few days at the end of your month?
If the answer is yes to some or all of the above then opting for a print mail service will help streamline some if not all of the above processes.
Optimising a managed print mail service will save staff time and yield big cost savings through automation.
Organisations that use multi-channel distribution which is a combination of mailing letters and emailing for will save money by outsourcing the mailing element.
Here’s a list of 10 reasons why you should use a print and mailing service to mail out those customer letters, invoices and remittances.
Why would I want to outsource my letters to an external supplier?
1/ Companies that regularly process documents ready for mailing will gain from outsourcing some if not all of the components that make up the process flow.
Working with a print mail services partner gives the company access to state of the art electronic design, printing, document management technologies and cloud-based computing. This means that you save money by not investing in the same technology. This saves an organisation time and money.
2/ Working with a reputable print and mailing company gives you access to their expertise. By maximising the advantages of document management, electronic despatch and print of transactional documents.
What are the advantages?
You get the flexibility to post out the letters you don’t want to process in-house.
3/ By accessing your paper trail you can evaluate what letters are being generated for who and why. This helps you rationalise what’s being printed. Are so many necessary? Do they convey the company branding effectively and do they communicate clearly and unambiguously?
It’s no good having a great-looking invoice if the customer can’t see what they owe and how to pay.
4/ Speed – one of the main factors affecting the mailing of your documents is speed. If you auto print overnight it saves time but what if it takes three days to collate the letters and mail them and another two days before they arrive on your customers’ doormat?
Mailing facilities by definition have faster production/automation, printing and despatch technology, the process is completely mechanised from receipt of the file to mailing out.
We never have problems printing in-house!
Great, but what happens when you’re ready to hit the print button and discover there’s a problem with the invoice file?
For a print and mailing company, it’s easy, you make the changes online and your documents will meet the mailing deadline.
5/ Sophisticated design technology means that documents can be variable and highly personalised.
Why would I want to personalise my invoice or statement?
Your documents usually have a name, address and department or destination for the intended document and so it is already personalised. A print and mailing company designs your documents with personalisation at the forefront.
You might give some of your customers’ specific discounts or you want to promote a new price on a product or range. Adding a marketing message to the invoice is a great way to promote more of what you do.
If there’s white space use it and promote it.
Highlighting messages in colour draws the customer’s attention and you show your customer how to pay or what action they need to take.
6/ Clean your customer invoice lists to ensure accuracy and delivery of invoices. What’s the point of sending out your invoices if half of the envelopes come back as “not known at this address” you’ve just duplicated the effort!
A print and mailing services company uses de-duplication software to manage duplicate addresses and generate reports that can be updated by your CRM team. Or duplicate invoices are extracted saving you postage and wasted stationery.
7/ Outsourcing offers the benefit of postal sortation and maximising postage discounts using downstream access reducing postage costs.
8/ Spot or highlight colour using laser technology we print and highlight specific areas of text in colour on your document.
Our invoices are already printed in two colours.
Using what we call spot or highlight colour on the amount column or to bring attention to amounts overdue or an important message is a powerful way of alerting your customer to speed up payment.
9/ One of the difficulties in managing the paper process in house is the maintenance of your corporate credibility. If different departments order from many print suppliers how do you ensure the company style is reflected across all transactional documents?
That’s easy by outsourcing your company style and branding are maintained and reinforced on every invoice, statement and document mailed.
10/ A print and mailing company offers an end to end service by using modern document management technologies and printing services making it easy for you to outsource the whole process.
Some good points Caroline – I think you are missing the vital component cost which is the postage. 80% of all fulfilment costs is within the postage model – embracing a zonal postal model you can realise postal discounts regardless of the file size and therefore maintain a cap on all expenditure.
Happy to talk again