Returned post is a huge expense for any business. A bad address not only slows delivery but results in returned mail, which is very costly – for everyone.
The cost to handle and re-mail undelivered mail has a hard cost of over $2 per item, towering over the original 60-90c it cost to print, process and mail the item! Overall, for most companies this adds around 10-15% to their annual mailing costs.
For major retailers with large customer bases, it can really add up. On a recent trip to the main Auckland post sorting centre I noted a huge bin of 25,000 returns from just one retailers expensive glossy catalogue! Tens of thousands of dollars wasted in print, mail house processing, magazine handling, postage and subsequent disposal! One would hope they had a strategy to solve this problem, although we somehow doubt it.
For companies sending out bills, the costs of non-delivered mail and then chasing errand clients is also great, costing businesses tens of thousands annually.
Obviously it’s not just a question of getting a clean database with the right postcodes, SOA processes etc. It’s also ensuring you have a means to take care of customer details, keeping track of them when they move address.
NZ Post tell us up to 20% of the population moves each year and 5-10% of many businesses mailings are ‘lost’ during this process, never finding their intended recipient. It seems most of us will update our address with key suppliers like Telephone, Electricity, Banking etc, but few others. It’s up to those suppliers to do the hard work, make contact and update things.
These days with the various CRM packages and their integrated internet toolsets, there are few excuses not to keep our address databases clean, accurate and up to date. Ourselves as well as NZ Post have several innovative, low cost services that help a lot too.
It can start with us adding a simple barcode to each and every mail piece, then having any returns quickly scanned, auto-updating the original database. What once took hours, could be done in minutes…
Call us for details.
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