Most businesses send letters, mailings and documents through the post on a regular basis. For some, this is a time-consuming activity - getting documents and inserts together, folding and stuffing envelopes, applying postage and making trips to the Post Office.
Anywhere that efficiency savings can be made is all extra time going back into the business. Staff freed up from manual, repetitive and time-consuming activities can invest that time back into serving customers and growing the business.
Mail management has traditionally been quite a manual activity, but with the right technology, significant benefits can be gained. By using a franking machine instead of stamps, the whole process of outbound mail management becomes more efficient. This is because a franking machine means:
- Calculating postage is simple
There are three factors to consider when calculating postage: size, weight and mail class. Taking account of all of these, working out postage manually can take time. This is significantly reduced with a franking machine because it takes away the need to look up rates and work out postage manually. The machine’s integrated weighing scale and rate wizard makes it quick and easy to calculate the right postage, saving considerable time that can be better spent on other activities.
- No more buying stamps
Re-crediting postage online, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year means there’s no need to queue to buy stamps. What’s more, hunting around only to find that stocks of stamps have run out or that there aren’t enough of the right stamps, becomes a thing of the past.
- Mailing list management is streamlined
Any items of post that don’t reach their intended recipients are wasted time and money. Invoices could go unpaid; marketing campaigns could fail to deliver the expected return on investment.
For this reason, as well as for reasons of security, it’s imperative that mailing lists are kept up to date, but it can be difficult to know when contact details have changed. A franking machine helps remove the guesswork by optionally including a return address within the franking imprint. When undelivered mail makes its way back, mailing databases can be updated.
In our next blog in this series examining reasons to use a franking machine in 2020, we’ll consider professionalism. In the meantime, you can discover how Quadient can help you streamline your outgoing mail management with a franking machine.
