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The argument for multi-channel delivery solutions and strategies

Mike Porter’s recent piece "Do your customers trust you?" touches on a point about how the mail center can transform and promote itself as a trusted partner to their customers.

"By being involved and helping your customers understand their options you can help them design a communications strategy that helps them reach their goals."

Many mailers today struggle in the face of an uncertain ‘new economy’ of mailing. Their volumes are down, costs are rising and the perceived value of mailing operations is being questioned.

But I suggest that the demise of the production mail center — under threat of being seen as a commodity, of being outsourced, of being a necessary evil — is not a foregone conclusion.

Both mailing companies and internal mailing departments can position themselves as strategic partners to their customers — ones that can help set direction and justify investments — even when those plans include shifting mail from physical to electronic alternatives.

The promise of electronic delivery includes cost savings, quicker delivery of information, self-service options, and meeting new delivery preferences. What doesn’t get a lot of coverage is satisfying industry regulations — a high-profile challenge especially in the insurance, banking and financial industries.

A mail operation can become the owner and proponent of an electronic delivery strategy and solutions by using it as an alternative way of managing the security, delivery and tracking of regulated content.

For example, if mailpiece content is governed by state and/or federal regulations (HIPAA, SOX, UDAP etc.), then by default, it requires a detailed audit trail of what information was delivered, as well as when and to whom is was delivered.

Traditional mailing operations are getting pretty good at the when and the who, but still often struggle with quick reproduction of exactly what information was sent.

That is one area where electronic delivery can offer real advantages. When information is managed in a browser-friendly format, a company has many low cost, easy-to-leverage options for managing and sharing relevant information for each user. Users can be presented with quick access to full document views that match both print and electronic designs.

And with technology advances, mail centers can leverage their existing ADF to extend the value of existing print file data — with minimal workflow changes, IT intervention or ownership. Solutions available today can enable dynamic file management for physical or e-delivery options based on preferences and business rules — all on the fly, while the print file is processed and finished for mailpieces.

Mail center management can and should make the business case for owning the document lifecycle where online and print/mail elements co-exist. The fundamental premise is that the mail center has historically handled highly regulated content that is delivered via physical mediums. But why not handle the same data managed over multiple delivery channels and leverage all of the benefits available?

By offering this type of solution, mailers can re-position themselves as valuable partners who proactively support the organizations goals. Mailers may have to convince themselves first that it’s not only about getting the mail out, it’s about getting the right information to the right people in the format they want it, all while adhering to regulations (something mail centers have been experts at for years.)

Over time, e-delivery may go up and physical message delivery may go down or we may see a tighter mix where summary information is available physically but detail information is only available online. But a mail center that is part of the solution can build a reputation as a different kind of service provider — one that is vital to the content delivery process.

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By Mike Maselli
August 13, 2010

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Adding efficiency to mailing

Newsweek senior editor Daniel Gross’s recent post Going Postal posed some good questions about why mailers do what they do—and he submits that "power mail users should do what others do when the price of any resource rises—figure out how to use it more efficiently."

He has a good point, and one that I have seen many mailers putting their efforts toward for years. But at what point does the rate of a postage increase outpace cost savings gained from eliminating inefficiencies? I don’t think we are there yet.

But we are getting closer because out of 100% of the operating costs of a mailer, only about 25% can be made "more efficient." The rest is postage costs.

Postage can account for over 75% of mailpiece cost.So, how can mailers squeeze more out of the remaining 25% of costs? The key is knowing when and where to find the most gain.

A good start is to look to investing in faster and more efficient hardware or implementing rules-based programs that combine "like" work together for productivity gains and postage savings. Another option is to identify and reduce equipment and operator idle time by getting a better handle on when certain jobs should be released, or when preventive maintenance or operator training should be scheduled.

Every mailer and operation is different. For example, catalogers have different business models than transactional mailers. But this is an interesting point that Gross makes:

Direct marketers would be more judicious about the volume of junk mail they send. Couldn’t Pottery Barn offset the cost of higher postage by sending us one catalog every month instead of the two identical ones they’ve been shipping for the last several years?

Why is it that some mail recipients are getting two or three of the same catalog, perhaps with a slightly different version of their name (often misspelled)? Are the mailers renting several databases and not cleansing them? Is it all outsourced? Are tight SLAs making the pressure to get the mailing out the door more important than the cost of delivering duplicate pieces to one household? Does the mailer have the solution for identifying and removing duplicate mailpieces from a production run?

Some ways that mailers can manage these issues are to cleanse mailing lists, generate control files to identify missing or duplicate mailpieces and then track finished pieces using intelligent systems or add-on quality controllers.

Another good question he raised:

Why can’t my electric utility company, which is so concerned about energy efficiency, simply e-mail me my 14-page monthly bill instead of printing it out and sending it through the mail?

Most utility companies can provide electronic versions of bills and statements. However, unless a customer opts-in to a different delivery method, many state regulations require the biller to use traditional mail delivery. In addition, because many of these laws are set at the state level, larger providers need to either have a generic solution for all customers or build different sets of rules and conditions for various customer profiles.

Satisfying these regulations also includes being able to produce an audit trail of every communication piece delivered, regardless of the delivery channel. The risk of cancelling a service that may be necessary to keep a business afloat or ensure that required health care is available without proper attempts at delivering billing notices is more than most organizations want to bear.

To his point, there is opportunity for the utility industry to offset postage hikes and ensure compliance with regulations by delivering documents normally posted by mail via multiple channels or mediums. This might require a simple solution for customers to opt-in for different services, or the mailer to consolidate monthly bills and marketing messages into a lower cost, dynamic piece (one that is faster and cheaper to produce and requires fewer resources.)

In many cases, the technology and processes that can make mail more efficient do exist. But mailers still need to try and squeeze 25% of the pie to offset the increases of 75% of the pie.

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By Mike Maselli
July 23, 2010

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Managing Spikes in Volume

Many mail center operations experience repeated volume spikes that create short-term recurring capacity needs. For example, financial services organizations often see processing spikes at month-end and quarter-end. But managing these peaks and troughs by investing in hardware or software and spending any capital is very difficult to justify in today’s economic climate.

To solve these capacity needs, why not partner with a provider that can process your overflow work to the highest level of quality in a secure environment? Sending work to another processing center can minimize disruption to your own operation, provide planned capacity at peak times, minimize overtime and let you avoid costly hardware purchases.

Choosing an off-site print and mail partner can help you manage the peaks and troughs of your operations

When I talk to people interested in outsourcing their print and mail operations, I tell them that regardless of the partner they choose, the key considerations I think they need to make include the following:

  • Security: Does the vendor under consideration adhere to the highest industry recognized data and physical security standards? Here I usually refer to Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard compliance and SAS-70 Auditing Standards certification. Any data center that is handling print and mail operations should be state-of-the art. They should also have secure shredding operations to destroy wasted material.
  • Process control: To be effective processes must be repeatable. Has the vendor achieved ISO-certification? Can they consistently meet the rigorous requirements for process documentation and control in order to produce your work at the highest quality? All good operations maintain quality and on-time performance metrics: ask to see them.
  • Dedicated resources: When you need information or require help, will you have access to knowledgeable IT and client service resources? A world-class print and mail organization will provide you with professional and dedicated support personnel to ensure that your questions are responded to quickly.

The most important and the easiest way to get a sense of a prospective print and mail partner is to visit their facility. Even when travel budgets are tight, this is the single most important investment you can make during the partner selection process. A visit will provide you with enough information to know whether your potential partner has the ability to meet your all overflow processing needs.

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By Nick Kepf
June 23, 2010

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Controlling quality in the digital print environment

The digital print industry is driving many new and exciting advancements, and is now helping companies personalize color documents with variable data to attract reader attention to a particular message or account detail. The use of color, however, requires a greater degree of quality control. Particularly when color is used in corporate logos, design schemes or dynamic marketing campaigns, print output must be color-perfect, without exception.

Traditionally, quality monitoring has been the responsibility of operators, who have conducted random inspections either visually or by using a handheld tool. Both methods fall short of guaranteeing total quality and efficiency. Handheld tools, for instance, can only check select areas of certain images and usually require the printer to stop. Human inspection only samples the output and, like any other human check, is prone to error.

With the right inline inspection system, each print image can be analyzed at full production speed, ensuring correct and consistent color output. In addition to monitoring color variance, streaks of ink or voids where ink should be can be identified. An example of ink appearing in image areas not designed for any ink:

Printer ink streak

Click to enlarge

Printers using ink-jet technology can experience quality issues when an individual jet, or a group of jets, is idle and ink dries. At first a void is caused due to a clogged jet, but then as the clog breaks free a streak or blob of ink will occur.

A good solution will also provide visual and electronic warnings automatically to alert operators, technicians and managers, enabling proactive troubleshooting and cost avoidance from long runs of poor-quality pieces.

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By Mark Paul
May 27, 2010

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How to save on postage, Part 3

Move to new delivery options

Ultimately, the best way to save on postage is to avoid it. While moving customers to paperless options is not always easy or the best strategy, the resistance appears to be waning as younger, more tech-savvy demographics shape the consumer base. Some mail recipients will still prefer to be reminded that they have a payment due, have a physical document for record keeping, or simply prefer to go to only one place for all of their correspondence – their mailbox.

In each of these cases, it can be enticing to encourage customers to move to new delivery and/or payment methods by offering rewards for doing so. To ease the transition, organizations should consider a hybrid approach that sends customers a summary-only statement that does not include the details and history that a traditional bill or statement might contain. Customers who want to drill down into those details can be provided access to a secure web site for detail viewing and other self-service options.

Approaches such as these can act as a bridge towards new delivery options, and can be part of an overall strategy for saving not only on postage costs, but on physical document creation and operational processing.

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By Mike Maselli
May 19, 2010

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How to save on postage, Part 2

Following on to my last post about saving on postage, this post looks at getting the most of out existing discounts.

Get the most out of existing discounts

There are many ways for mailers with mid- to high-volume applications to receive a lower postage cost. The postal service rewards mailers with discounts for doing some of their work prior to submitting mail. In particular, worksharing discounts are available when a mailer validates and standardizes addresses, preventing undeliverable-as-addressed mailpieces from entering the mailstream.

Many of these discounts are tied to a new regulation being driven by the United States Postal Service® (USPS®) – the Intelligent Mail® barcode (IMB).

Address cleansing and sorting

Some mailers either can’t correct the addresses they receive (for example, they just process the list of recipients and have no control over it), and others don’t cleanse their mailing lists because they don’t have the technology to do so.

For those who can’t correct addresses, the best cost-saving approach is to identify undeliverable mailpieces before they are submitted to the postal system. New technologies that help with this use the power of vision system reading and USPS database lookups at machine speed.

So even though a mailer may not be able to control whether the address is correct, they can determine whether the mailpiece will get to the recipient. With this information, they have the power to pull the mailpiece from the entire mailing. This approach saves money in two ways: by avoiding having non-compliant mailpieces incur penalties, and saving money by not applying the price of postage to an undeliverable mailpiece.

Mailers who do have the ability to correct their addresses can reduce their postage costs by leveraging technology – either pre-print or during sorting – to satisfy postal requirements for address cleansing and mail sortation, ensuring that submitted mailpieces are deliverable and already grouped by destination.

Other benefits include timely delivery, which can satisfy government and industry requirements in industries such as banking and financial services, and has the possibility of lowering the float of payments by speeding the round-trip cycle.

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By Mike Maselli
May 19, 2010

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How to save on postage, Part 1

I was recently asked by a colleague to collaborate on a piece that explores some basic ways that mailers can save on postage rates – which eat up about 70 – 75% of a mail center’s operational budget. There are many approaches, but in the next few posts I’ll take a look at a few trends on the rise.

Extend the power of the mailpiece

Postage cost increases in Standard and First-Class mail make it more attractive to combine marketing messages that have been historically sent out as separate direct mail pieces with transactional mail – often referred to as Transpromotional mailing. This avoids the extra postage and production costs of a separate application. And by enclosing advertising or special offer inserts, or changing a document design to include personalized marketing messages, you can improve the relevancy and impact of a mailing.

Transpromotional mailing is gaining momentum because it meets two common challenges – improving communication and lowering cost. Mailpiece inserts have been used for advertising for many, many years, but new technology and methods have improved the results by enabling mailers who are already sending out documents with high open rates to target their own offerings on their documents.

If a mailer can prove that cross-selling and up-selling via the mailpiece can become a profitable endeavor, or at least be done in a way that lowers cost, they can justify even more organizational investments. The reality is that for all of the advertising that is seen by the average mail recipient each day, very few messages actually cut through the clutter and wind up in the hands of the reader. Transpromotional content can do that.

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By Mike Maselli
May 19, 2010

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