With the advent of email, social media messaging and video conferencing, it’s easy to think that physical, posted mail will soon become obsolete.
Between the time it takes to send, the additional cost, wastage and potential for getting lost, physical post has a lot of disadvantages over technological forms of communication.
Despite these drawbacks and the number of technological alternatives available, the US postal service still delivers billions of pieces of mail each year. This is mainly due to nostalgia, but also because direct mail can be a viable solution for many businesses.
Whether you’re in an industry that still relies heavily on direct mail, you have stubborn customers who refuse to give it up or any other reason, physical post is still very much a factor in today’s business landscape.
Still, with the demand for digital services rising, many companies rely heavily on tech and might struggle to deal with physical post.
If you’re running a business and wondering how to handle physical mail in this tech-focused landscape, keep reading.
Consider a Virtual Mail Service
For businesses that work remotely, with teams spread across the country or even around the world, picking up post and managing physical correspondence can be a logistical challenge. Using virtual offices, like the ones offered by PhysicalAddress.com, which offer an online mailbox and a service to pick up and manage your mail, can save time and effort.
With the help of these services, you can ensure that you offer customers and other business associates the chance to reach you by mail without having to share your personal details and sort through all your post manually.
Encourage Customers to Use Tech by Offering Mulitple Options
Limiting how much physical mail your company receives can save you a lot of admin, particularly if some of the letters are from customers and important suppliers. To help them transition to using tech instead of physical mail for invoices and other important documents, offer a selection of choices.
Choose several popular options that customers like using and start accepting them all, so you’ve got more chance that your clients will start using digital communication tools over direct mail.
Learn How to Combine Physical Mail with Tech
If your business does have an office, and regularly receives post, then you need to put a system in place to deal with it. Make sure that one designated point of contact picks up the mail, and then separates it and hands it over to the relevant individuals.
For some items, such as invoices and timesheets, you could then consider using a scanning app to create a digital version of the document. This approach will cut down on the work you need to do handling physical documents and manually typing data into a computer.
A Quick Summary
Technology has paved the way for increased efficiency throughout the corporate world, but there is still some resistance to it in some areas. Physical post is one core sector where some businesses remain behind. If your company has to deal with direct mail as well as digital communications, then these tips should help you to streamline your operation and make the most of the technology at your disposal.
