Tag Archive for 'Aura'

How Intelligent Mail can drive business results – Part I

Published on January 7, 2010 in Intelligent Mail. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Some companies invest up to five percent of revenue on information technologies, continuously looking for new ways to gain a competitive advantage. In 2010, organizations can generate valuable customer intelligence from an asset that already exists—mail.

The new Intelligent Mail® barcode provides for the lowest postal rates today and will be required by May 2011 under postal regulations. However, the value outside of the mailroom is even greater.  This week we examine how you can improve marketing and enhance customer service.  Next week we look at ways to streamline billing and collections.

Marketing: Sell More Effectively

Optimize call center staffing. With too few agents, calls go unanswered; having more agents than needed adds a tremendous cost. The capacity to pinpoint mail delivery with precision helps marketers ensure the right number of agents are available to take new orders.

Target in-home windows. When you can track and monitor mail delivery across the country you gain a competitive edge—the ability to plan communications so that they arrive at precisely the right time. 

Reach more customers, more often. Nearly 50 million Americans move each year—and many make little effort to advise you. For marketers, that represents a huge cost and a lost opportunity. With Intelligent Mail®, the postal service will provide you with address corrections absolutely free of charge so you can stay connected. 

Customer Care: Deliver Timely, Accurate Response

Reduce Talk Time. The ability to monitor and track the status of mail-based communications—including check disbursement, fulfillment kits, statements and compliance notifications—arms representatives with the facts they need to respond to customer inquiries with speed and accuracy.

Prompt Fewer Calls.  A high percentage of calls are related to mail communications – confirming whether parcels, payments and orders have been sent or received. Now, delivery status can be tracked from the production floor through delivery; and you can make that information available to customers through web-based portals, eliminating follow-up calls.

Make Better Fee-Waiver Decisions. If there’s any confusion as to when a bill was received or when the payment was sent, many companies will forego legitimate late fee charges in the interest of customer service. Armed with precise information, customer service reps can act with facts and confidence.

Bridging the gap between the mailroom and critical business operations, solutions such as MAIL360TM and AuraTM software turn barcode data into actionable information. As we start 2010, think about the ways you can leverage Intelligent Mail® to locate new opportunities, connect with customers and communicate more efficiently.

Who cares about seven cents?

Published on October 22, 2009 in Address Quality, Move Update, PBBI Solutions and Postal Pricing. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

News that the USPS will begin assessing fees in January 2010 on mailers who fail the new address quality audits has left mail operation heads scrambling to make sure they are in compliance with all Move Update requirements.

After all, the cost of non-compliance – up to seven cents per piece on a portion of your mailing – can easily bust your budget, especially at a time when everyone is looking for ways to reduce expenses.

Details on the latest USPS effort to curtail Undeliverable-as-Addressed Mail can be found in our earlier post and white paper, The Truth About Move Update. This white paper outlines how samples will be audited and the calculations by which fees will be assessed when mailers exceed the 30% error-rate threshold. Today, however, we want to discuss why it’s important not only that you comply – but also how you comply.

After all, if the goal were simply to save seven cents… you could save that and more simply by not sending the mail altogether. But you can’t – because the communications you send have a purpose. They help you connect with customers and prospects, collect revenues, meet government regulations and sell products.

While that may sound like motherhood and apply pie, we were surprised to hear about a mailer who decided to outsource move update compliance to a third-party because he felt it was the simplest, easiest way to save seven cents. The USPS was happy because addresses were updated and the piece was delivered. But at the end of the day – the information about those customer moves never makes its way back to the company. 

Month after month, bad records are corrected, but the company fails to recognize new opportunities associated with these moves. They fail to target offers correctly because their data is wrong. Eventually, when the customer’s “change of address” notice expires, they simply lose touch altogether.

This can occur when you don’t receive the new address information, but the same poor result can occur when you have the data and don’t update your records. You see – getting and using the data about a customer’s move is worth far more than seven cents.

But we understand that it needs to be simple and easy, too.  That’s why so many mailers are excited about our new VeriMoveTM Access solution.  It’s an “on demand” offering which means there are no software agreements.  No changes to your underlying systems.  And no need to acquire and pay for the USPS® NCOALink® license normally associated with on-site updates.  Your addresses get updated and you get to keep the new data.

If you’re interested about closing the loop, you’ll also want to learn more about ways you can automate the cumbersome, manual process of correcting customer addresses—turning the codes generated from NCOA and ACS into actionable information.

It’s a cost-effective way to keep track of customer moves.  And yeah, it can help you save that seven cents, too.  If you need to see a demo, let us know.