Avoid these mistakes to keep your mail process in scary-good shape!
Don’t be haunted by high postage costs, undeliverable mail, and errors buried in your mail prep process. Our mailing and shipping teams outlined 6 common mistakes businesses make during mail prep and shared expert tips to avoid them this fall.
Mistake #1: Paying full price for postage
In addition to making mailing more convenient and productive, a postage meter saves your business 5 cents on every first-class mail piece. If you are still paying frighteningly full prices for stamps or spending hours at the Post Office, let us help you make the switch. The same goes for shipments, padded envelopes, Priority Mail® and Priority Mail Express®! With low-cost software like NeoShip, you can save up to 40% on your shipping costs.
Mistake #2: Ignoring address quality
Getting the scary yellow sticker on important invoices or business-critical mailings will spook any CFO or AR Manager! That's because returned mail due to bad address data represents cash flow, and it can become a significant cost issue if it's ignored. In fact, the true cost of one undeliverable mail piece can be as much as $50. Inaccurate addresses cause to late payments, reduced cash flow, and customer dissatisfaction, but there's a solution. Adding address validation software to your mail workflow is a low-cost way to improve Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and put a stop to those pesky yellow stickers. If you're not sure what percent of your mail is undeliverable, we can make that number less mysterious with a mail audit and scorecard.
Mistake #3: Forgetting to rate shop
With so many package carriers and service options available, not comparing rates can lead to nightmarish shipping invoices—especially during peak holiday shipping season! When you "shop" for rates, you automatically compare the pricing of the USPS, UPS and FedEx across three key cost-saving categories: (1) price, (2) type of delivery, and (3) delivery time. That can be a lot of work. Luckily, NeoShip multi-carrier shipping software does all that work for you and even allows you to upload your pre-negotiated rates. Just select the best rate* and fastest shipping option. Add a Neoship shipping option to your postage meter and ship overnights, flats, packages and Priority Mail® right from your postage meter.
Mistake #4: Processing mail manually
Have all the hours your team spends manually stuffing envelopes turned them into paper zombies? Well, here's a real treat: you can group, sort, collate, merge and stuff envelopes 10x faster using a folding inserter. With a folder inserter, you'll take the first step toward introducing automation into your process. Say goodbye to the grim process of stuffing envelopes by hand. Our low-volume folder inserters automatically fold, stuff and seal over 1,000 envelopes in an hour. You can then increase productivity using mail management software to add barcodes to every piece of mail. No more pulling exceptions, manually merging documents for the same customers, flagging certain customers for special BREs or marketing mail pieces. The barcode tells the folder inserter what mail should go in which envelope. This just might be the sweetest news you hear this Halloween!
Mistake #5: Not having delivery options
If mailing from your desktop sounds like a treat, then mail management software might be for you. A mail management platform allows you to centralize your mail all in one place and access options, like sending invoices, payment reminders, and other mail using email or outsourcing the entire process to a secure, advanced facility. With software, you can cut down on mail and postage costs and free up hours of time for other work. It's easy to use, 100% industry compliant and, we think, wicked good!
Mistake #6: Not having an outsourced solution
If you find the entire mail prep process a vampire, then outsourcing might be for you. Mail outsourcing gives you the power to print, sort, stuff, meter and deliver mail to the Post Office—all without leaving your desk. With outsourcing, you'll speed up invoicing, increase productivity and cost mail and postage costs. All your mail is printed, prepped and routed for delivery at one of our advanced mail production facilities using a secure and automated process. You'll eliminate the distraction of mail processing entirely but be able to track each individual mail piece online.
Not sure what you need or want to learn more?
Get in touch with a Quadient expert who will help you find mistakes in your mail prep that are costing you money.