Did you ever think you could have it all? No Compromises!!
Well now you can:
· Lower mailing cost
· Reduced mail delivery time
· Delivering mail the way your customers want it
· Increased mail security and privacy
· Quicker payments
· Mail tracking, including opening of the letter and attachments
All of this by going green!
Mailers are looking to reduce cost
Companies of all sizes are looking for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency. One area where significant improvements can be made is in the mail creation and distribution process. Costs for first class transaction mail can be reduced 15-20% by preprocessing the file prior to printing. This savings might include reduced postage through the implementation of CASS/PAVE software and mailing fewer letters by house-holding and suppressing printing based on the automation of business rules.
If mailers want to reduce mail processing costs further they must begin to eliminate hard copy mail and replace it with email. While email can be used in many situations, standard email is not a secure or private method of communication and proof of delivery is difficult, if not impossible. Today many mail recipients (43%) would prefer to receive their bills and statements in their inbox as an email with secure attachment. Without security, traceability and a cost effective method of implementation however, many mailers are forced to continue to send paper mail.
Secure Electronic Document Delivery and Email Bill Presentment and Payment - A win-win for the mailer and the recipient
· What if you could send some or all of your transaction mail to clients via email for a fraction of the cost of hard copy mail, with little or no changes to your mail creation process (including IT)?
· What if, not only could you reduce the cost of transaction mail but also deliver it faster, more securely and with an instant delivery confirmation?
· What if, you could also be paid electronically by your customers, reducing incoming mail processing costs and improving cash flow?
· What if you could not only save cost, and improve delivery but also be more environmentally conscious - saving trees and the carbon footprint that goes along with the transportation and delivery of the paper documents?
When letters are delivered by securely via email everyone wins.
Here is how it works:
1. Prior to printing a document file is segregated by the recipients' preferred method of delivery. For those customers wishing to receive their mail electronically, the documents are encrypted and emailed (pushed) to their mailbox. For mail requiring an independent verification of authenticity and deliverability, the service can be integrated with the US Postal Service's e-Postmark service.
2. To open the secure attachment, the recipient must enter their password/shared secret to view the document, which can look identical to the paper copy. If the letter is an invoice, the customer can authorize payment with one click, directly from within the document itself, without having to log onto a separate website.
Everyone wins:
· The customer receives mail by their chosen method of delivery.
· The mailer gets a significant cost reduction and confirmed delivery.
· The environment wins because less mail is being sent in paper form, using fewer trees and less fuel to transport the mail.
At current mailing costs the payback can range from 6 to 12 months, depending on mail volume and the actual letter mix. As an example:
· A medium sized electric utility achieved a paper turn off adoption rate of over 19% after four months of going live.
· A large mortgage broker is sending 500,000 eDocuments per month with intelligent marketing insertions.
· A regional water company has reduced billing costs by 85% and reduced improved time to pay from 45 to 9 days
· A large Insurance company had an 88% cost reduction and a 16% paper turnoff within one year.
In addition to cost savings and faster payment, by integrating dynamic advertising in transpromotional documents, mailers are driving qualified traffic to their websites. According to Garin Toren, COO of Striata North America, "BillPay marketing is one of the hottest, most effective channels for customer retention strategies and loyalty programs, providing numerous up- and cross-sell opportunities. Even a simple, plain text payment confirmation can easily be transformed into a rich marketing vehicle."
When looking for a secure electronic document delivery system that can successfully replace hard copy mail it must be easy to use, simple for the recipient to enroll, be user friendly and have low ongoing support costs.
· The cost and time to implement must be low so that the initial investment can be quickly justified by the reduced mailing expenses.
· The ongoing support costs must be low, otherwise the per piece savings will evaporate.
· The service must be simple for the user, both from an adoption point of view and on an ongoing basis.
o Without a simple adoption process, recipients will not "opt-in" for the service.
o Without an easy and user friendly way to receive messages, recipients will not stay with the service, or worse, they will take the electronic delivery, but insist on continuing to receive the paper document.
o The service must have a high user confidence for security and authenticity and must be unphishable.
The result: a project with a low investment, high adoption rate and a high ROI.
Eagle Consulting, LLC dba The RHRosen Group
Rich Rosen is the Managing Member of The RH Rosen Group, founded to provide cost saving products and solutions to medium and large mailers. The RH Rosen Group helps mailers reduce mail print costs through mail flow optimization and the successful transition from hard copy mail to secure electronic document delivery and is an authorized reseller for Striata. Rich has over 30 years experience in the mailing industry, having worked at several of the major industry players, and has engineering degrees from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia University.
