How to Save Money in a Tight Economy with a Comprehensive Statement and Billing Solution
In today’s competitive environment, high-quality, cost-effective customer communications are essential to your image and your bottom line. Processing statements, invoices and other account-specific communications can be time consuming and expensive. Consider all the costs associated with generating, printing, folding, inserting, mailing and postage.
While most organizations have been forced to tighten their belts to make ends meet in today’s troubled economy, saving money isn't just about cutting costs - it’s about refining processes along the way.
While there are many obvious things that can and likely are already being done in your organization to lower expenses, have you considered your current processes for creating, compiling and distributing customer bills, statements and invoices? Read on as we uncover some of the many benefits of an integrated solution for managing and delivering customer communications, including opportunities for cost reduction and increased profits.
An Outsourced Solution
If your organization currently manages billing in-house, you likely have costs associated with postage, material, labor and management. Not to mention the time spent handling system issues and customer billing questions!
However, by partnering with a provider who offers flexibility of document output options (print and mail, e-mail, fax or online presentment), you’ll not only eliminate the need to find, integrate and manage multiple suppliers for your operation, but you will also be able to free up resources and investments to focus on your organization’s core competencies.
One should also be careful not to overlook the importance of effective internal controls, high security standards, and tight quality procedures to process sensitive, customer data. Partners offering comprehensive statement and billing solutions should have safeguards in place for physical and electronic security, from receipt of customer data through processing, printing and distribution, in addition to sophisticated quality control mechanisms to ensure secure customer data doesn’t end up in the hands of the wrong recipient.
When selecting a statement and billing provider, ensure the proper technology, resources and secure environment are in place to properly manage your customer communications with complete e-services, including:
- Document conversion from print to PDF or HTML
- Electronic document presentment
- Encrypted e-mail statement delivery
- Hosted archiving and e-notification
- Comprehensive document indexing, archival and retrieval
Whether through a customized electronic presentment solution or a package that will help you quickly get up and running, a trusted partner should ultimately help maintain a consistent customer brand experience, increase revenue and reduce the coordination of vendors and schedules.
Postal Optimization
Skyrocketing United States Postal Service (USPS) mailing costs make the cost of doing business steeper. In fact, postage accounts for a significant portion of total transaction printing and mailing costs.
As a component of a comprehensive statement and billing program, USPS expertise and postage optimization strategies prove invaluable. Such proficiencies not only identify postage savings and assist in designing documents for postage optimization, but also provide process efficiencies through address cleansing programs that decrease UAA and return mail.
Today, the cost of processing, printing and sending bills can range from $.457 to $.857 per piece. Add any internal costs associated with processing systems, support services, and management, and total costs can increase exponentially. By quickly and effectively migrating to an electronic distribution model, eliminating the costs associated with printing and postage, you can convert complex variable formats into dynamic products and deliver measurable results.
Meet Customer Demands, Drive Revenue
Technology innovations are transforming the way you communicate with your customers, and companies are now looking at electronic billing solutions as much more than a means to save money on printing and mailing costs.
In moving from printed to online communications, you have the opportunity to substantially reduce costs, broaden your marketing capability and improve the experience for the growing number of customers, investors and employees who prefer receiving their communications electronically.
With the adoption of electronic bill presentment, more organizations are now meeting customer’s growing preferences for electronic communications and simultaneously streamlining payment response time. The greater Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) your receivables are, the less opportunity your company has to leverage an improved cash flow. As a result of the speed associated with electronic bill presentment, many organizations that have made the transition have gained control over their billing cycles and the potential for improved speed – some seeing electronic statements paid in a matter of seven days.
What’s more, electronic presentment allows you to broaden your marketing capabilities, drive revenue from cross-selling opportunities and show your customers that you’re taking an active role in environmental responsibility. Through dynamic messaging capabilities, you’re free to personalize your documents, eliminating marketing material printing costs and the associated postage expense. By specifying what you want your messages to say and who should receive the message, you’ll gain maximum exposure for your marketing initiatives.
Through an integrated solution for managing and delivering statements, invoices and more, your organization can get further value from these critical customer communication channels.
A recognized leader in document services, Standard Register provides a comprehensive suite of services for capturing, composing, personalizing, producing, and distributing statements, invoices and other critical account notifications. To learn more about how Standard Register is leveraging the latest technologies, providing our clients with the latest, most sophisticated production and distribution capabilities in highly-secure and controlled environments, contact us now.