Is it worth it for vendors to help print and mail centers find ways to save money in their current operations? If document centers do save money in some areas will they spend it with you?

 

I believe that they will. That's why we've developed a number of ways to enable vendors to provide the kind of help that improves customer loyalty and frees up customer funds. If you believe in this strategy too, we should talk.

 

Of course if you read only the stories in the popular press, it would be easy to think that printed documents and physical mail were generally unwanted by the vast majority of consumers in the United States these days and therefore we might as well shut down the Postal Service. Often, these pieces by newspaper columnists and bloggers contain questionable facts and they frequently over-simplify complex issues.

 

Curiously, when actual mail recipients are asked, the answers aren't nearly as severe. One recent example is a consumer survey conducted by InfoPrint, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh.

 

Here are some highlights from that survey: 

Those of us who make a living supplying products and services that facilitate the production and delivery of paper documents should find these results to be encouraging. It appears that hard copy will be with us for quite some time.

 

Even though the situation does not appear to be as dire as some have predicted, vendors must recognize that a significant portion of American consumers have embraced electronic document delivery. Future product development should take these trends into account. Going forward, companies that use our products to communicate with their customers are going to be spending money on all effective channels, and possibly not as much on traditional paper mail.

 

At Print/Mail Consultants we've addressed the needs of the mailers today by helping them find ways to make sure every piece of mail they produce pulls its weight. Strategies we use to make the document centers more efficient and relevant will keep them in business - which in turn keeps the vendors in business.

 

We also facilitate communication between document operations folks and other departments like Marketing to make sure that the document center is viewed as a valuable entity that can help enhance other communication channels - not just an old dinosaur that simply provides an antiquated commodity.

 

The InfoPrint survey reveals that email has its problems. Clearly the volume of irrelevant marketing material, spam, and other junk that populates in-boxes is affecting consumer preferences for message delivery. But just as paper mailers are striving to send only relevant, compelling mail, so are the email distributors. If the current difficulties with email were eliminated, more consumers might just be opting out of paper mail delivery.

 

Given the relative cost of creating and distributing email vs. paper mail, companies will certainly continue to be very interested in moving more volume to this channel, or something similar to it. If all it takes to make commercial email messaging more effective is to craft more relevant emails and minimize spam, you've got to believe that there are smart people working on solutions right now.

 

So the vendor community has to be ready. We can't be betting the farm on strategies to only support paper mail. Those that do will have to build a viable business model for commercial success with lower volume sales over the long term.

 

We can help you provide more value to your customers right now with customized training, analysis, coaching, or books. Being engaged with your customers at a deeper level enables better communication which allows you to create products that meet changing requirements or helps you craft solutions instead of losing customers to your competitors or seeing them disappear due to outsourcing or acquisition.

 

Xplor continues to be the premier place for document industry professionals to go for education, certification, and networking. The organization is working hard to rebuild membership and revitalize chapters and regions. And it seems to be working.

 

The XDU Road Show has been presented in several cites so far and plans are underway to expand the presentations to additional communities in 2010.

 

Popular Lunch and Learn webinars have attracted a steady stream of document industry professionals. Many of them have never attended an Xplor event in the past.

 

Vendors have plenty of ways they can exploit this increase of interest among their potential customer base. Here are just a few ideas:

 

Xplor is still the place where people in the document business go for education and to learn about industry developments. Make sure your company is represented!