In the previous post I listed two technological improvements that impact the way customer statements are produced: super fast color printing, and sophisticated statement design software. Coupled with enhancements in the information available to statement designers about their audience; improvements in delivery tracking technology, and a heightened appreciation within service provider organizations of the statement as a marketing engine, a major change in the statement production chain is finally possible.

Knowledgeably Talking to Each Client

Most service organizations have spent a great deal of time and expense developing profiles for each existing customer. They know where the client lives, their age, their buying habits and perhaps even their preferred language of communication.

With this type of information, organizations can effectively personalize a customer statement to fit each client’s needs and spending habits. This would include everything from character-size to the lifestyle pictures used (e.g. 30-year-old female in Texas that has greater than 1,000 minutes per month on their cell phone should not see lifestyle pictures of retirees in Florida). It would also include subtle marketing at the point-of-need within the document.

In client surveys, respondents have repeatedly stated that they read and remember more information from highly personalized statements, and feel a greater sense of trust in the organizations that issue them.

Ensuring that the Client gets their Statement (and On Time)

Why do we use a courier service to deliver a document? In most cases, it is to ensure that the other party receives the document in a timely fashion. Postal authorities worldwide are implementing the next-best thing. Organizations will soon be able to identify individual documents (via an envelope barcode), which then could be tracked through the postal system out to the mail-route.

This means the mailer can absolutely prove the posting of the document (to be compliant with the mailbox rule[1] in contract law). It also means that the mailer would know when the mail piece was delivered to the recipient.

With these new tracking systems, mailers can get almost all the benefits of courier delivery at less than 5% of the price.

Client Statement as a Preferred Communications Medium

The synergy caused by these four technology improvements has been noticed by innovative service organizations, especially in telecommunications. In these organizations, marketing executives are using the statement as one of their critical communication touch-points. Customer care executives have begun to use ‘pre-emptive” messaging to minimize support calls. Corporate communications have ensured that the document supports and promotes the brand.

In the upcoming posts, I plan to discuss how organizations like yours can exploit these technologies as well as the ones I previously discussed. Whether a major technology change or a small but pivotal design concept, I hope that my posts will help you improve the quality of your client statement.

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[1] The mailbox rule provides that a document delivered to the ‘post office’ be considered presented to the other party. A mailer usually does not have to prove that the post office delivered the statement, only that they delivered it to the post office. One rationale given for the rule is that the mailer nominates the post office as implied agent and thus receipt of the mail-piece by the post office is regarded as equivalent to delivery to the other party. Check with counsel for a more precise interpretation on how this applies to specific mail-pieces.