Basic HTML Version
www.binfo.co.uk
Mailing
magazine
30
In a recent Pitney Bowes survey of
4,000 consumers in the UK, Germany,
France and US, a letter was regarded
as the fourth most effective means of
resolving a query with a business, cited
by an average of 30% of respondents
globally and 39% in the UK.
The most effective method was
thought to be the phone (cited by 73%),
followed by face-to-face contact (57%)
and email (50%). A form on a company
website (26%) was preferred to live
web chat (15%), with only a very small
minority making use of text messages
(5%), instant messaging (3%), Facebook
(3%) and Twitter (2%).
A separate survey conducted by
technology consultancy Portal also
highlights the limitations of social media:
Twitter and Facebook were the most
popular means of interacting with a
business for just 2% of consumers and the
least popular option for 31%. Email and
telephone enquiries were the favourite
communication channel of 52% and 19%
of consumers respectively.
In contrast to Pitney Bowes’ findings,
Portal’s show the extent to which
traditional communication channels are
being overtaken by digital alternatives.
In its whitepaper,
British business – at
your service
, Portal publishes a graph
showing how much more popular digital
communication methods have become
in the last two years. The number of
consumers rating customer portals as
their preferred way to contact a business
was 61.9% higher in 2012 than 2010;
social media was up 42.9%, email up
41.2% and mobile apps up 33.3%.
Over the same period, traditional
communication methods have gone out
of fashion, with the number choosing
face-to-face interaction as their
preferred option down 20.5%; telephone
communications down 36.8%; and postal
communications down 68.6%.
It is important to note that the high
growth rates of many digital channels
are the product of a very low base,
e.g. a rise from 1.4% to 2% in the case
of social media; that the results quoted
relate specifically to how customers prefer
to contact businesses and don’t reflect
the value of physical mail as a means of
generating new business, for example;
and that the large drops recorded for
traditional communication methods
disappear if you look at Top 3 rankings. For
example, the proportion of respondents
who cited post as their first, second or
third choice (out of eight) fell only slightly
from 50.2% in 2010 to 47.5 in 2012.
Multi-channel communications
What lessons, then, should businesses
take from these findings? For Ian
Davidson, president of Pitney Bowes
Global Mailing Solutions, the Pitney
Bowes survey clearly underlines the
need for a multi-channel approach to
customer communications.
He said: “We accept that email was
third overall in customer preference, but
The changing
role of the letter
Today the post is just one way of interacting
with suppliers and, despite its position as a
secure and trusted means of communication,
an increasingly unfashionable one.
the fact remains that if a business wants
to resolve a customer query, a successful
outcome is much more likely if they
write a letter, pick up the phone or speak
face-to-face. However, there is no getting
away from the fact that a multi-channel
communications programme is the way
to reach customers. Each will have a
preferred method of interaction and this
is why multi-channel is so important.”
Using output management solutions
from Neopost, Pitney Bowes and others
to automatically deliver messages in each
customer’s preferred format won’t just
deliver improved customer service; they
can also help reduce costs.
Torbay Council, for example, is
looking forward to ‘dramatic’ savings and
more efficient communications after
implementing software to design, create
and produce personalised customer
communications across multiple
channels, including print, email and SMS.
The Council, which sends out over
one million personalised messages
a year, ranging from housing benefit
notifications to council tax statements,
estimates that using Open Print from
Sefas will deliver annual savings of up to
£76,000 through lower postal and print
costs. It expects further savings to come
from more efficient automated processes
and reductions in inbound enquiries.
As digital alternatives gain more
ground, the case for implementing
a fully integrated multi-channel
communications strategy becomes ever
stronger. Your customers will appreciate it
and, the likelihood is, so will your FD.
...just 2% of
consumers
cited Twitter
and facebook
as their
preferred way
to interact
with a
business...
Frama on the up
The rise of digital communications should be
bad news for mailing solution providers, but
in the case of Frama UK it has contributed to
a 23% year-on-year increase in unit sales, as
businesses update mailroom equipment in
response to falling mail volumes.
“What we are finding,” explains Frama UK
general manager Chris Hayes, “is that companies
are seeking to downsize their mailroom capacity
and the physical size of their equipment to
achieve cost savings.”
Another factor that Chris believes is
driving demand for Frama franking machines,
folder inserters and letter openers is the new
management team’s commitment to deliver the
best value, quality and customer service.
“Our aim is to supply our Swiss-made, high
quality products, using clear and transparent
contracts with no hidden charges, backed up by
excellent levels of technical service,” he said.
www.frama.co.uk
New openings
OPEX is replacing its best selling Model 206
Envelopener with the Model 306, also available in
a version with enhanced sorting capabilities (the
Model 306s). The OPEX Model 306 can open up
to 40,000 envelopes per hour and features a new
milling cutter that can remove chips as small
as 0.01in from the envelope edge to prevent
damage to contents; three mail tray holders; and
an optional 90 degree powered conveyor.
New sorting features on the Model 306s include
output to two locations based on programmable
criteria, such as thickness, length and height, and an
optional batching capability that allows items to be
grouped together in pre-selected lot sizes.
These options make the Model 306s ideal for
applications like claims processing, remittance and
vote-by-mail that require verification of contents
either before or after extraction. Because the Model
306s can identify ‘clean mail’ from ‘exception mail’,
operators can prioritise extracting contents from
clean mail for maximum productivity.
0161 776 4033 www.opex.com
IN BRIEF...