Enhancing Statement Printing and Mailing Accuracy and Efficiency

Even with the rise of digital communication, reliable statement printing and mailing still carries significant weight. In 2023, a substantial 12.6 billion bills and statements landed in mailboxes across the United States, highlighting the continued importance of physical statements for billing and collections.

Ensuring these are accurate and efficient communications isn’t just about smooth operations. It’s central to maintaining customer trust and a healthy revenue stream. Innovative, technology-enabled solutions are essential to meeting these ongoing demands.

While U.S. postal service and mailed bills have been around since colonial days, best practices in statement printing and mailing have definitely kept up with the times. Ongoing 21^st Century innovations enable companies to cost-effectively meet changing customer expectations while enhancing accuracy and efficiency.

At the heart of accurate statement printing and mailing lies clean, reliable data. Companies should use robust data management tools that verify and refine customer information before it ever reaches the printer. This includes rigorous checks and up-to-date address verification, along with strong security to protect sensitive data.

Printing technology offers greater speed, improved cost efficiency and more options than ever. State-of-the-art continuous color roll-fed production printers can handle complex designs and incorporate color duplex printing at over 50,000 sheets per hour.

What’s more, advanced printing technology allows for highly personalized documents. By using variable color printing, companies can tailor their messaging, highlight specific account and billing details including amounts due, and add relevant inserts for each recipient, all within the same print run. Embedded QR codes can point to the company’s payment portal. This level of customization makes the billing statement a more valuable and engaging touchpoint for customers.

Multiple technologies to ensure mail integrity include automated job ticketing for production tracking and piece-level tracking, so every mailing is guaranteed to be accurate, and every piece is accounted for. Leading providers utilize barcode technology to ensure that every page and insert and envelope matches its correct contents. High-speed cameras manage page capture for quality control without interrupting production. Integrated finishing options automate tasks like folding, inserting, and sealing envelopes.

By reducing what were previously manual steps, these automated workflows minimize errors and speed up turnaround times, resulting in faster statement delivery and potentially quicker payments.

The best way to optimize all facets of statement printing and mailing starts before production with a flexible customer communications management solution. A cloud-based CCM platform lets companies easily create, update, distribute and archive documents, eliminating costly back-and-forths with vendors over revisions and proofs.

CCM software should enable business users to streamline everything from data import to printing and mailing. To simplify the complexity of customer communications, an omnichannel platform enables companies to compose electronic communications and offer electronic delivery options such as email and SMS/text messaging. Some also integrate with electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) systems to meet varied preferences for consumer billing and payments. A hybrid approach leverages the strengths of both digital and print.

Top CCM solutions include real-time tracking of the status of each communication, a robust reporting engine and document archiving.

Keeping postage costs down is key for any organization sending large mail volumes. Experienced providers offer strategies to optimize postal rates, including:

The USPS processes approximately 94,000 address changes each day. To protect against losses from bad address data, look for mail processing services that include National Change of Address (NCOA) validation and Address Change Service (ACS™) to reroute mail with undeliverable addresses.

Leading statement printing and mailing service providers offer Intelligent Mail® Barcode (IMb) implementation for tracking and delivery insights on inbound and outbound mail, viewable from the CCM dashboard. Smart mail management can lead to significant savings while ensuring reliable delivery.

Given the sensitive financial details in billing statements, security and compliance are critical from composition to statement printing and mailing. Vendors should follow strict security protocols and meet relevant standards such as:

This commitment to security offers peace of mind and ensures adherence to regulations, protecting the organization and its customers.

Every customer interaction matters. Companies can leverage the often-underestimated power of the printed statement to build stronger customer relationships and accelerate cash flow.

Please contact us to review your omnichannel customer communication processes.