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Best Practices

What 2019 Postage Increase Really Means

March 6, 2019 By Michael Ryan

The bulk of transactional mail will increase $4.50 per 1000 pieces of mail this year. There are minor differences between the Mixed AADC, AADC, and Five-digit but for practical purposes $4.50 is the number to use.

Five-digit ZIP, automated area distribution center (AADC) and mixed AADC are the three primary presort methods that the Postal Service bases their postage pricing on. 

Under the five-digit tray scheme, mailers have to present a minimum of 150 mail pieces being sent to the same five-digit ZIP code as part of one bundle to qualify for the lowest level of postage.

With AADC, you have mail that isn’t presorted as finely as the five-digit ZIP mail pieces; rather, it bundles together mail that’s addressed for delivery in areas that share a common postal distribution center. AADC mail was previously grouped together based on shared three-digit ZIP codes, until the USPS ended this practice in 2016 and merged three-digit and five-digit ZIP codes under one presort scheme.

Finally, there’s mixed AADC (MAADC), which covers a broader geography of destinations – namely, any mail pieces that didn’t fit into the five-digit or AADC trays. Unlike those options, this presort method doesn’t stipulate a minimum mail piece-per-tray requirement.

Filed Under: Best Practices, News

Why Go Paperless?

February 28, 2019 By Michael Ryan

The invoice and statement processing industry has left a trail of paper in its wake for many years.  Once considered simply a cost of doing business, this paper trail is no longer an unavoidable by-product of our work.  Paper has risen 17% in the past year. 

StatementOut, with its intuitive, access-controlled, online payment management system is making it easier than ever for its outsourced clients to integrate paperless options and reap a range of economic and environmental benefits.  What are these benefits and how can they impact YOUR business?

  • Reduced Costs – Save on printing, mailing and manpower costs, and pass these savings on to your clients. Online statement processing can be done at a fraction of the cost of the traditional print and mail only systems of the past.
  • Quicker Turnaround – As a business owner, you rely on expedient payment for your services.  Online payment management takes the extra steps out of the equation, allowing for immediate payment processing. In this click-and-go world, people are accustomed to, and reliant upon, the expediency that technology allows.   Electronic payments are made on average 8 days faster according to Forbes , than payments using more traditional paper-based methods.  When every day and every dollar counts, such expediency can give you the edge you need.
  • Happy Clients – StatementOut’s online statement processing system provides you the ability to give your clients 24/7/365 access to their account information.  We live in a world where business does not stop when the office doors close.  By providing your clients the flexibility to access their information and manage their accounts whenever it is convenient for them, you demonstrate that you care about their needs.
  • Greener World – Of course, less paper means less environmental impact, which is good for everyone.  PayitGreen.Org explains that in one year of switching from paper to electronic billing payment, the average American household could save an average of 6 pounds of paper and 23 pounds of wood, and prevent the production of 29 pounds of greenhouse gases.  Integrating paperless options for your clients will have a profound effect on the environment – benefits far beyond those to the bottom line.  Visit PayitGreen.Org to calculate the reduction of your environmental footprint when switching to electronic billing, statements and payments.

StatementOut puts the vast benefits of paperless receivables management at your fingertips – and allows you to share those benefits with your clients.  Extensive though the benefits may be, a wholly paperless system does not work for everyone. By integrating paperless options with our traditional paper delivery systems, we also give you the added benefit of CHOICE, providing you with the ability to customize a system that meets all your statement outsourcing needs.

Filed Under: Best Practices, Financial Industry, Healthcare Industry, Insurance Industry, Waste Management

Envelopes

January 2, 2019 By Michael Ryan

Envelopes are a crucial but often forgotten part of the data distribution process. From a production point of view they can mean the difference between a smooth running job with no problems and a poorly running job fraught with jams and re-prints. Jams and re-prints mean additional costs for the production facility and the potential to miss deadlines.

In our experience there are good reasons why some envelope manufacturers are a cut above the others. How the envelopes are shipped is a good indicator of what you’re getting. Are the cartons stacked so high on a skid that the bottom rows are getting crushed? Some manufacturers have moved to tape-less cartons that accommodate a single row of envelopes and don’t have smaller inside boxes. These don’t require box cutters to open, are easier for the operators, and produce less packaging waste.

Outside seams, either diagonal or vertical make a big difference. We started using outside side seams for all our #10 and 6×9 delivery envelopes several years ago and have seen excellent results. All inserting machines “push” the paper into the envelope and if there’s anything in the way, like a poorly glued seam, it will cause a jam. Outside seams remove this obstacle.

Speaking of glue, how well the manufacturer manages the glueing process can make or break an entire shipment. Poorly glued acetate window patches and residual spot glue inside the envelope can be job killers. Inadequately glued flaps can result in envelopes not sealing properly and require additional work to make sure they are properly glued.

Since paper prices have risen 17% since the spring of 2018, envelope costs have also skyrocketed. One way we mitigate this is to purchase envelopes in very large volumes and pass the savings along to our clients. We purposely designed all our stock envelopes with double windows allowing multiple clients to use them for branding and messaging by adjusting document composition. StatementOut offers compatible sets of #10’s (up to 5 sheets), 6×9’s (up to 9 sheets), and flat envelopes (up to 81 sheets). By compatible we mean your document can be tri-folded, half-folded, or not folded and the address and barcodes will show through the window with the appropriate USPS clearances.

The envelope is also where the postage is paid. Typically there is a pre-printed indicia, metered postage, or a stamp.

The pre-printed indicia is the easiest and StatementOut’s company permit is printed on all our stock envelopes, except flats. This means the U.S. Post Office debits our postage account as soon as any mail is presented to a Business Mail Entry Facility. Most of the mail you see in your own mailbox will have somebody’s pre-printed indicia on it.

Metering is printing the postage from an approved meter directly on the envelope and is generally a weigh-on-the-way process where the envelope is weighed just prior to the meter mark being printed. Meters and ink are controlled by only a few companies like Pitney Bowes, and are therefore very expensive to purchase, supply with “approved” inks, and maintain. Meters also introduce an additional mechanical process that will cause opportunities for jams or other problems.

Stamps are seldom used on transactional documents but are still employed by direct marketers and non-profits who believe the stamp gets people to open the envelope. Transactional documents don’t have that problem.

In summary, the envelope is a really important component in the mailing process and involves a lot more than meets the eye.

Filed Under: Best Practices

Consumers Like Paper

December 4, 2018 By Michael Ryan

Reposted fm https://www.pitneybowes.com/us/shipping-and-mailing/case-studies/4-reasons-consumers-prefer-paper-bills-statements.html.

It is a very informative article about why paper isn’t going away and consumers like paper.

If the 2000s were the decade of digital, the current decade could be the decade of trust, where success is defined by keeping the goodwill that organizations have worked so hard — and spent so much money — to build.

For transactional communications — that is, invoices and statements — consumers have voiced a clear opinion: they trust the mail. Despite the push toward Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP), e-payments have had slower than expected adoption. InfoTrends, a top research firm for customer communications, says that nearly 66 percent of household bills and statements will still be mailed in 2018.1

Dr. Larry Ponemon, publisher of the Ponemon Institute’s Most Trusted Companies, a yearly report that measures consumer sentiment, explains why consumers prefer mail.

1. No mystery here
The U.S. mailing process is an easy-to-understand system that’s familiar to everyone. There is little fear that your mail carrier will open and read your correspondence — unlike online interactions where growing numbers of users are taking steps to protect their personal information and block “cookies” from following their every move.

Studies show that 25 percent of consumers choose to receive paper bills because they feel it is a “security precaution.”2 Ponemon explains why: “Different types of information have different levels of privacy expectations attached to them.” Areas such as finance and health remain sacred and demand higher levels of privacy.

2. The human element
Many people know their mailperson by name and interact with him or her on a regular basis, establishing an unusual person-to-person trust factor. The USPS®’s newer customer-service efforts, like 24-hour call centers, reinforce relationships between the agency and its customers.

That’s why consumers named the USPS® one of the United States’ 20 most trusted companies and the number one most trusted government agency for the last 10 years.3 These positive sentiments spill over to businesses that employ postal services.

3. People like choice
“Companies that rank high in consumer trust have a strong orientation to respecting their customers and providing the best possible customer service,” Ponemon says. Consider companies that offer online billing. Consumers sometimes sign up, then opt for a paper trail. Nationally, one in three people surveyed said they had reverted to paper delivery after trying an electronic-only experience.4 In the long run, giving people options can have a positive effect on key business metrics, like increasing loyalty and decreasing churn.

4. Expectations are met
There are hundreds of federal laws that protect our mail service. In fact, most people have some level of knowledge about those laws — for example, many know that opening another person’s mail is illegal. These rules set clear privacy expectations.

There are other practical reasons as to why consumers rely on the mail. For example, bills and statements must be mailed First-Class®, which guarantees that mail forwarding and return-mail actions take place. Consumers can be certain that no matter where they are in the U.S., their mail will find them.

1,2,4 InfoTrends: Insights into the Transactional Communications Market: Setting the Stage, 2015.

3 Ponemon Institute, Annual List of Most Trusted U.S. Companies, 2008-2014.

Filed Under: Best Practices

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