Hybrid mail for a national charity
Our hybrid mail solution is highly versatile and is used for several purposes across our client base. In this particular case we rolled out hybrid mail, nationally, for one of our charity clients.
The problem
The charity has a large number of staff that work remotely, as well as volunteers who work out of its main London office. When the charity receives donations, it writes to the supporters, thanking them. This process was a bit clunky; donations are either received ad hoc, or as a response to a particular campaign. The donation responses tend to be aggregated together at set times, usually once a month, where volunteers will print off and enclose the thankyou letters by hand. Thereafter, the database department will update the relevant records with a flag showing the thankyou letter has been sent.
The solution
The charity was already a client of ours and, as such, we were aware of its processes. With hybrid mail, we were able to offer a downloadable print driver, which would link any user to our system – whether they worked remotely, or within the head office. Staff like the personal touch when it comes to thank you letters, so often type the letters out from scratch, or adjust a previous letter to suit.
Whereas they previously spent time printing batches of letters off and then giving them to volunteers to enclose, they can now print off letters on demand. The process is the same as if you have a printer at your desk – they preview the letter, choose a few additional options, such as the type of envelope and the postage class, then they click print.
The benefits
The difference is that the letters are sent straight into our workflow and are printed and enclosed by machine. This is a much more cost-effective proposition and frees up the volunteers’ time to focus on more charitable matters. The letters are aggregated together with all our other hybrid mail streams, in daily batches, meaning the client gets a significant reduction in postage costs on each individual letter sent.
Not only that, but once we have sent the letter, we punch into their system via an API and automatically flag the relevant record as having a thankyou letter sent – the client just has to enter the supporter ID in the print options page; they can also choose the specific campaign the donation relates to from a drop down menu.
The wider organisational benefit is that hybrid mail is not just used for donation responses, but it is now being used for day-to-day ad hoc mail within the organisation. This has led the client gradually reducing the number of internal printers they lease, saving money on lease costs and consumables. With our solution they can still print on demand – and at a much cheaper cost of doing it internally.
