magazine
32
Mailing
Visibility and control
How efficient is your mailroom?
Today, organisations communicate
with customers, prospects, partners,
associates and employees using a
variety of channels. Doing so has
benefits for the sender and the
recipient.
Even so, making the transition to
multi-channel communications is not
always straightforward. According to
an Opinionway survey for Neopost, UK
businesses are struggling to manage
digital and postal communications
effectively, resulting in wasted time,
human errors and a lack of traceability.
The survey of 280 small and medium-
sized firms (SMEs) reveals that over half
of SMEs use both physical and digital
channels for general correspondence
(59%) and invoicing (53%).
When asked about the challenges
they face in their communication
processes, almost half cited the amount
of time wasted in the preparation of
digital and paper-based communications
(47%) and the risk of human error (45%).
Just over half (51%) said they found it
hard to keep a record of communications
sent via multiple channels.
To help such organisations manage
the preparation, delivery and archiving
of both paper and electronic documents
– and provide a consistent customer
experience across all channels – Neopost
has introduced the neoPreference cloud-
based management tool.
Key features include the ability to:
1. Centralise production of digital and
postal communications.
Use a single tool for the production
of your digital and hard-copy
communications, with centralised
control and visibility of all your
customer communications.
2. Automate the creation of
communications.
Save time and minimise errors by
creating processes for the production
of your customer communications,
including the uploading of Excel,
Word, Powerpoint and PDF files and
supporting material; the creation of
address lists; and the addition of digital
signatures.
3. Send communications via multiple
channels.
Send communications via multiple
channels from the same system.
Once you have created your mailing
just choose the channel to be used
based on your own and/or individual
customer preferences, including
email attachment, weblink, a digitally
certified email (with digital signature)
or printing and mailing.
4. Archive all communications
regardless of channel used.
Keep a secure record of all
communications you send – digital
and postal – with 24/7 access to
documents from a single system.
5. Track and trace digital
communications.
For compliance and security,
Neopreference can track when
communications are opened giving
you a valuable audit trail for digital
communications.
Neopost Digital Solutions Director
Erwan Kernevez said: “We’ve developed
NeoPreference so that businesses aren’t
overwhelmed by the complexity a multi-
channel communication strategy can
bring. As the office becomes increasingly
Neopost introduces cloud-based tool to help SMEs implement and keep
control of multi-channel customer communications
digitised, it’s essential
that organisations
fully incorporate
digital thinking
and working
into their everyday life. NeoPreference
enables SMEs to maintain a productive,
organised business that manages paper
and digital.”
Compliance
Another major benefit of neoPreference,
says Kernevez, is improved compliance.
“Compliance is a big problem, with
over half of SMEs unable to track their
communications, which means they
will face problems when asked to
show, or provide the status of, specific
documents by the tax office or auditors.
NeoPreference solves this problem by
automating the preparation of important
documents, such as, invoices, credit
notes and statements, thus completely
removing the possibility of human error.
The tool also contains an advanced
search engine, allowing SMEs to search
for and retrieve their electronically cloud
stored documents in an instant.”
He added: “As the workplace
increasingly embraces the multi-
channel approach, it’s imperative that
companies implement an effective
mail management solution that does
all the hard work and administration
for them – by doing this they will see
a big difference in terms of efficiency,
customer satisfaction and, ultimately,
sales.”
Document management specialist Data
Capture Solutions (a Neopost Company) is
advising businesses to reassess how they
measure mail process efficiency.
It points out that mailroom efficiency can no
longer be judged simply in terms of how long it
takes to open, sort and distribute inbound and
outbound mail, but should also take into account
opportunities to improve document workflows,
e.g. for invoicing or sales orders, as these can
have a significant impact on an organisation’s
profitability and reputation.
To that end, it has developed an online
calculator that shows organisations the effect
that their mailroom has on profitability and
where improvements can be made.
When conducting reviews for its customers,
Data Capture Solutions uses the following five
KPIs to measure efficiency:
1. Access and Shareability:
how long does it
take for a mail item to reach the intended
recipient?;
2. Cost of processing a high priority mail item:
what is the cost of opening, sorting, scanning,
distribution and data entry?;
3. Throughput and productivity of dependent
business processes;
i.e. how long does it
take to process an invoice or to service a
sales order? This measure can be extended
to any business process that is dependent on
information arriving through the post, such
as cheque processing, marketing response
management or claims processing;
4. Document storage costs:
how much does it
cost to store documents on-site or in off-site
storage?; and
5. Customer service
:
to what extent can improved
access to documents improve responsiveness to
customer requests or complaints?
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