Reprint from Output Links: The fifth of a six-part series on customer communications management and optimizing the mailstream

Special Interests: Customer Communication Management Series
Unlock the profitability in your mailstream.

August 11, 2006

Revenue and Relevance through
Intelligence in the Mailstream

Part Five: Channel Intelligence Reaches Customers Thoughtfully

By John Schloff
Vice President of Strategy, Product Management and Marketing
Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies

The mailstream is defined as multiple channels – all mail and documents, both traditional and digital.  This diverse set of channels has spawned a new strategic framework we call customer communications management (CCM).  Today, we’ll look at channel intelligence and how it supports efficient production and distribution to implement CCM that builds stronger customer relationships.
 
These newly more intelligent channels include:

• Mail. In the wake of ever-increasing clutter on other channels, like the Internet, mail has proven to be a smart choice for delivering attention-grabbing messages.  A mail tracking solution can be implemented to track print communications at every step – from creation to return delivery from the customer.  
  
• Online Account Management.  Online account management gives customers the convenience of 24/7 access to their accounts and fast, easy payments. Customers get convenient payments options – online or mail. Your enterprise benefits from tighter control that speeds incoming payments.  
  
• Electronic Document Delivery.  Customer bills and statements can be presented online in similar formats to their print versions while accounts are managed with real-time online reporting and analysis that is integrated with call center operations.  All documents can be stored in an electronic vault that integrates print and online records management and allows fast storage and retrieval by authorized users.  
  
• Digital Offline.  Many direct marketers are finding CDs and DVDs to be effective channels to deliver highly interactive, rich media messages to select customers by mail.  
  
• Call Centers.  The customer service representative (CSR) is likely the only live contact customers have with a company.  Arming CSRs with the latest customer data for instant access during calls is becoming critical to increased customer satisfaction and sales.

So, we have a great choice of channels.  Now the question becomes, how do we use them most efficiently and effectively to reach customers?  Moreover, how can we monitor multiple channels to get customer feedback, channel performance and status?

Reaching Dennis, Brenda and Robert by different paths

Let’s take snapshots of three customers to see how adding channel intelligence can help make their lives easier and their companies’ relationships with them more profitable.

First is Dennis.  Frequently on the road, he depends on wi-fi connections.  He has an account with a major credit card issuer, receives his monthly statement by mail and pays online. 

Dennis is a “two-channel” customer who is comfortable in both worlds of paper and digital.  He likes getting paper statements because they serve as a reminder and a hard copy for records keeping.  But he hates writing checks, paying postage and going to the mail box, so he pays exclusively online.  His credit card issuer, while recognizing the cost savings of an online-only relationship with Dennis, meets his preferences for both digital and paper.  Even so, there is an advantage for the credit card issuer, too, because they can more effectively cross-sell to him via messages on paper bill statement inserts.

Next is Brenda, who has a mortgage with her bank.  She receives her statement and pays by mail.  Brenda isn’t comfortable with the online world for bill presentment and payment and doesn’t mind paying by paper check.  She’s a “one channel” customer for bill payment, but also communicates with her bank by phone and e-mail.  Her mortgage banker is seeking incremental opportunities to grow their customer relationship with Brenda and feels a customized approach via the Internet could help.

To build the relationship with Brenda, her bank automatically places all her account information onto her personal web page and invites her to check it out.  Her online interactions are stored in the data vault for analysis and any further modifications to offers.  If Brenda has any questions about her billing, she now has two options – online via personal web page and by phone.  Her records will be instantly available to the customer service representative during her calls.

Then there’s Robert, who has both his phone and online services with his local telecommunications provider.  He pays his bill by mail, but also lands on the telco’s web service’s home page whenever he goes online.  Robert’s’ monthly statements are automatically distributed into the print stream and split into both the mail and the online channels.  So Robert gets the choice and convenience of being able to pay by mail or online.

Marketing messages to Robert are split three ways in the print stream and delivered via the three channels.  Offer messages are rolled out as A-B-C splits to mail, EBPP and his personalized home page.  There’s no need to print separate insert pieces, messaging is all done right on the statement itself. Offers to Robert can be “split-tested” on his home page to see which ones get the best response.  Once he is enticed to respond, response data is rolled out to create new, more personalized offers that can be distributed via mail or digitally.

How it’s done…

Traditionally, channel selection and distribution have been mostly manual tasks that require changing applications or the involvement of people from IT. But now, new suites of solutions allow key departments like accounting and marketing to create and initiate messages independently -- without IT participation –all on demand without altering the original application.

With a print stream engineering solution, as offered by Pitney Bowes, users can modify, customize and enhance customer documents without interrupting on-going document processing operations.  Documents can then be sent to either paper-based production or distributed online to personal web pages or via e-mail.

After messages are sent into the physical mailstream, they can be tracked all the way from document creation, through printing, insertion and sortation, all the way through delivery to the customer and back to the company. Meanwhile, accounts billable and receivable can view delivery channels for up-to-the-minute monitoring of outgoing bill statements and incoming payments.  Data and updates can be distributed and accessed across all departments to keep everyone in the loop.

All channels are connected back into the communications cycle. A shared repository integrates with all business systems and connects all users – accounting, billing, customer care, call center and marketing.  A fully indexed and searchable subset of the archive can be created and be used to expand channel delivery options by creating hard media like CDs and DVDs, or as an FTP-delivered image via e-mail from anywhere.

Flexible system architecture allows fast deployment of channels like call center, customer self-care and digital presentment and payment solutions.

Data coming in from customer online self-service for billing, bank, credit card, mortgage, health care and other insurance accounts is automatically fed back into the system.

Meanwhile, mail tracking provides timely updates on delivery of incoming payments that can help call centers reduce costly reminders to customers.

Communicating via the channels customers prefer increases satisfaction.  Including personalized and relevant marketing and cross-selling messages, in the formats customers want, boosts loyalty and overall profitability. And communications that are consistent across all channels adds efficiency and effectiveness to your marketing efforts.

Bottom line – the more intelligence you can add  into your communications channels, the more you can optimize each aspect of your mailstream.

About the author
John Schloff is Vice President of Strategy, Product Management and Marketing for Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies.  He has provided thought leadership to small businesses to Fortune 100® firms on how Customer Communications Management optimizes the mailstream to create cost savings and increased revenues.