subject: Will Data Capture Put The Postie Out Of Business [print this page] I am not sure about you but I am pretty convinced that my personal post is increasing! In this digital age when computers can scan and read documents using OCR, why I am still getting so much post?
There is so much mail it takes the postie until noon to reach us now. I am not talking about parcels or deliveries I am talking about the post i.e. envelopes.
At work we use a data capture solution its really neat all our post gets delivered to a central location and any paper documents are scanned, I just get the digital copies or images, they arrive in my virtual in-box. Life couldn't be simpler.
So if this can be done for my business why do we still need paper copies of documents? Why haven't the post office invented or implemented a data capture solution that gives me a virtual inbox?
I appreciate the average postie probably does not want to hear this, but right now the only thing that comes through my letter box is junk mail. My bank statements and utility bills are all online, no monthly statements required.
Somebody somewhere should do a cost analysis on the life-cycle of junk mail. It costs to write it, print it and then have it delivered and then we put it in recycling and we incur further costs to have it taken away!
Then you have to consider the costs the actual recycling process, let alone the cost of ownership when it comes to the postal vans and footwear!
The point is that most of this junk mail is completely unwanted. Half the time I just shred it (there is another cost!) and I don't even read it!
When was the last time you opened an envelope and thought well blow me down - just what I need a new set of windows and a kitchen, better put that on my to-do list better sort that out quick!
Have these people never heard of on-line marketing? Guess what the point of on-line marketing means that people come to you, i.e. there is a fair chance that someone might actually want something that you are selling. How much time and effort do you think that will save in people writing unwanted unsolicited sales literature?
We subscribe to this preference service it only works if you have never been a client. I get finance companies trying to sell me utilities, I get life the utility companies and super markets trying to sell me life insurance. Talk about brand extension its ridiculous.
There is one company who shall remain nameless who calls every month to see if I want new windows. They have been sending me mail now for eight years. I purchased a window from them at my old house and it was an old property. For some reason they have my address details for my new property. The point is its a new property, why would I want new windows? On average I get 2 mailers a month and at least one very short phone call. We have been in this house seven years. What do you think the cost of that regular contact is? I think the have probably spent any money I have ever handed over for services rendered.
So not only do we have the costs of mail delivery and recycling these companies waste their resources and the valuable time of their staff trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Writing literature that no one will read or use and plaguing the average under siege consumer who in all reality can probably just afford to keep a roof over their heads in these austere times.
It seems to me that with most service organisations taking advantage on the direct communication with their clients through the on-line medium it has left the postie and his delivery sack that much lighter.
The management team at the post office has got together and constructed a cunning plan to sell these very same companies (who are putting our statements online) direct mailing and marketing services to fill the post man mail bag, our recycling bins when if it was delivered online through some sort of data capture service I could just filter like the rest of the spam in my mail box.
by: Dannie Bouye
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