Print Service Bureaus - Takin’ Care of Business Using the Web.
Web-based systems are offering direct savings to print production’s bottom line and service bureaus are positioned well to realize ROI right from day one of implementation.
Why? Today’s web-based modules for the documents design workflow allows the company to segment specific areas of the workflow – areas in the past that may have caused extra costs that chipped away at the profit margins.
There are two sides to this coin; mistakes made by the customer and errors at the service bureau. Both can be costly.
On the production side, printing an incorrect file, using the wrong paper stock, and ultimately late document delivery causes extra costs which can be associated with overtime, cost of supplies, or poor response to a late mailing.
Customers can make similar mistakes by sending their print vendor the wrong file (thinking it was the approved file), or delivering their master files and data late. In these cases the print service bureau may pay for part or all the overages in order to retain the customer’s print business.
Many of these scenarios boil down to issues related to individual business processes and how they should be managed in the overall workflow. Web-based systems such as the Elixir Correspondence System provide service bureaus with the ability to delegate certain aspects of the document design, proofing and production workflow on a per-customer and per-document basis.
One area that customers are usually happy to take on (and vendors are just as happy to step away from!) is the proofing and approval process. Eliminating the potential for the wrong design or data file making its way into the production cycle can significantly reduce errors. A web-based system allows vendors to hand over certain responsibilities and activities while also providing the customer with an improved process.
The underlying management apparatus in a good document correspondence system contain tools to organize files and resources (images, text, etc.) and provide the ability for version control on the document and its individual resources. Documents are routed for approval and tracked through this process until a final approved version can be released to the vendor. This makes it pretty difficult to release an incorrect design or any other document element into the system. View this informative recorded presentation on how Data Recognition Corp. has implemented this business model using the Elixir Correspondence System.
Immediate ROI!
Transpromo is an Opportunity, Not a Promise Transpromo has gone beyond being an industry buzzword and has become an integral part of many corporations’ strategic marketing plans. This directive impacts the company’s profitability in two ways. There are significant cost savings afforded by utilizing existing mailings for marketing promotions and increasing the effectiveness of the promotion itself with targeted promotions means better campaign results.
For these companies especially, the visibility of transpromo’s effectiveness is under a magnifying glass, and we as industry professionals who know the potential of transpromo should not be afraid. In fact, we should welcome the opportunity to finally show the rest of the organization the true potential of variable data printing.
So how best to get the highest ROI from this exciting opportunity?
Get the involvement and participation of all the stake holders. These people will be influential in securing the resources, equipment, and software and will be critical in the overall success of the program.
Here are some key areas that should be represented when gearing up for transpromo:
- IT
Critical to the success of this project, IT holds the keys to the company’s data and the most effective transpromo document will be one that can utilize a wide range of data sources.
Assignment for IT: Create a list of all the databases available in the company without regard for the data’s format. List the purpose of the database, where it derives its data, and summarize the key fields.
- Marketing
Responsible for creating, delivering and then measuring the company’s marketing and sales campaigns. Their involvement at the inception of the project will ensure the new marketing promotions (under transpromo) will have the highest success possible
Assignment for Marketing: Draft up your idea of the ideal personalized marketing message with no concern as to where the data to formulate the message comes from.
Have fun!
- Printing Systems/Forms Design & Creative
The former knows the lay of the land when it comes to high-volume production requirements including the most efficient way to utilize images, fonts, etc. Creative will be responsible for providing graphics and artwork for use on this new type of marketing vehicle.
Assignment for Both: Get to know one another! Each group holds an amazing amount of design knowledge and a well designed transpromo project will need the combined expertise of both groups. Understanding the document layout and the critical mailing dates for statements and similar documents will help Creative hit the ground running and the more the printing side knows about the creative workflow, file formats, etc. the better. Study the company’s current monthly statements for style and format and start thinking about how best to integrate marketing messages and imagery and also how the overall statement can be improved. The group that provides forms design for print production can point out which statement elements cannot be moved (i.e. the address block) but remember that variable formatting means that much of the content can be formatted dynamically around the marketing images.
- Legal
Their review of which documents can be used for transpromo is critical. There may be a few that are off limits legally.
Assignment for Legal: Create list of documents that cannot be used for promotional purposes. Explain why so the team can be watchful in the future. Make sure you’re a member of the approval workflow as new documents make their way onto the transpromo list. Your early review with a go or no go decision can save time and educate your team.
- Customer Support
Who? Do include this important representative of the customer experience. They have a unique view of the customer relationship and can provide insight on how to make the transactional document more useful/helpful to the recipient. What’s in it for the company? Customer loyalty. If the document is easier to understand and results in fewer questions or calls to support then everybody wins.
Assignment for Customer Support: Create a list of questions and issues that require direct contact with the customer. Summarize the process of how each is resolved.
Once you all get in the same room and compare your homework it will be time to start looking for a software solution that can enable quick and coordinated delivery of transpromo documents.
A well designed solution allows distribution of the day-to-day activities required to create the document. Web-based solutions with robust roles-based access and online proof and approvals enable everyone in the workflow to participate efficiently and appropriately.
Properly implemented, transpromo can provide high ROI across a wide range of existing customer correspondence.
Transpromo Opportunities: Going Beyond the Monthly Statement
There are transactional documents, and there are documents that represent a transaction. The former is the document that gets all the hype, such as the traditional billing statement that arrives each month from your bank, wireless provider, or credit card company. The second category, equally useful in cross-selling and building customer loyalty, includes individual or small-batch documents such as late-fee letters, overdraft notices, and confirmation letters. Some of these are not the most popular envelopes in the mailbox. Nevertheless, these documents can be a way to connect with the customer in a positive way even while they deliver what may be an unpopular message. In both cases,
- The mailing gets opened
- The customer needs the information
- The mailing represents an opportunity to either cross-sell/up-sell or build customer loyalty, depending on the content
Sending a bank notice that a customer’s account is overdrawn is an opportunity to up-sell overdraft services. If you’re in marketing and reading this, then consider sweetening the offer a bit and waiving a portion of the overdraft fee if the customer opts to add the overdraft protection. This could significantly boost the number of people who sign up and also build customer loyalty by causing the customer to associate the fee with adding a service rather than making a math error.
Production volume is the biggest difference between the two document types. Statements are printed in bulk, and letters and notices are printed in smaller quantities either on non-production printers or batched and sent to volume printers.
Regardless of how the letters and notices get printed, they often take a different path for document composition and one that does not lend itself well toward highly customized content relevant to the customer and the occasion.
Traditional letter-writing applications and word processing software do not offer the key benefits of variable-data documents, namely:
- integration of sophisticated business rules driving the document content
- control on a section-by-section basis as to who can edit the document
- organized approval routing
- web-based business user interface (rather than programmer-level coding)
On the other end of the spectrum, there are many document composition systems that can provide all the robust content handling and production but are suited toward programmers and developers.
Today’s document correspondence applications such as the Elixir Correspondence System offer the best of both worlds.
Easy-to-use web-based word processing interfaces can be accessed from any browser and are suited to all business users in the organization. Any area of the document can be protected from editing or, conversely, can allow editing. The foundation for each document is based on a template which can contain any number of business rules to drive the content, determine who can edit, who can approve it, and more.
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