Mail communications to customers are a Major Business Opportunity
Too often I have seen companies who see the sending documents to customers as a task that is borne of necessity. This is a background task, but costs money it is essential. So we do. We print the documents and send them to customers.
Except in the most Enlightened companies are rarely the communications with clients considered a business opportunity. However, these same companies may often spend very large somes of money on marketing live as part of the sale and marketing.
One thing we know is that most companies, it is much more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep a customer. It is more cost effective exercise to increase share of wallet of existing customer than are the costs of acquiring a new one.
Too often, we hear how end users the experience of sales was, were the promises made and expectations. However, once purchased, the experience of working with the supplier becomes so-so and very me at.
One thing that research tells us is that customers spend much more time looking at a bill, statement or other communication important and essential than ever will be an element of direct mail. I call these types of documents transactional documents. And it is here, he is one of greater opportunities for organizations.
I think there are two key factors to be included in the evaluation of these transactional documents as a business opportunity:
1. Make good use of white space available on transactional documents
2. Your company has probably a lot of data and knowledge about your client. Use this data to make it easier for customers to do business with you. Creating customer value through the use of the combination of spatial and white.
Sophisticated, customter focused organizations have demonstrated leadership in these areas for some time. Examine a bill from someone like Virgin or Vodafone and you'll see what I mean.
These documents are information rich and they are useful for the recipient. They tell customers how they can make their relationship with the company more profitable with different rates. They advise new products that the customer may find useful. They explain clearly how to make payments. They submitted bids and the composition of the document is clear. Customers can find key information quickly and efficiently. This is all achieved by making good use of data and organizational making the most of every interaction with the customer by mail, email, phone or face to face. Let's examine these ideas individually:
Make business more profitable Customer Relationships
This may seem like cutting income deliberately. However, it is more likely to improve Customer Relationship. By reducing customer costs, you can probably expect the client to trust you and more to stay with you more than you show your willingness to be competitive. If the customer's perception is that you are most competitive and most reliable in the long term, they are likely to buy new products from you. It's really a win – win.
Using the transactional document to promote product.
Because you know that customer, you can have a pretty good idea what they are likely to buy from you. If promotional material for the customer, they are likely to take note. Remember that people spend more time watching a transactional document that will be a piece of direct mail or email.
How to make payments / How to interact with your organization
This point is important. In a time when customers have a lack of confidence in the results they get with communications centers, customer service, making process easy for the customer, giving them good directions improves your relationship with them. It makes life much easier with you.
It has also operations. By reducing the time spent getting customers to talk to right people in your company, it reduces overhead. This means that you can run more efficiently, may have fewer agents and customer service that you can solve problems faster. This a huge cost saver.
Presenting the document well.
There are consultants out there that understand how things humans read documents he has been scientifically studied and is well understood. They know where people look and they know what confuses people. If people understand your document and can interpret the information contained in the well, then it is less likely that your call center receive a "small" queries. These are the questions that the service centers charge down and bring big spikes in traffic. Smooth the peaks presenting information well and investing in a good document design approach.
Draft documents is an online blog and offers a real world service management consultation documents.
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About the Author
The author owns and runs the website Document Project Blog. The site provides news, articles and community for marketing communications professionals and customer communications management professionals.
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