Smarter Mailings with PlanetConfirm

By Andrew Sisson

Since 1998 the USPS has offered a little known service designed to track standard mail through the delivery system.

This paper is designed to provide an overview of the USPS Confirm product offering. A number of proven applications will also be discussed highlighting areas where a high level of ROI can be realized.

The USPS first introduced its Confirm service in 1998, utilizing barcode data to provide near real-time tracking of both outbound and inbound mail streams. Similar to the standard postnet barcode, Confirm uses a barcode called a Planet Code which allows each piece of mail to be uniquely identified and tracked through the mail delivery process. This includes first-class mail, standard letters, flats, and periodicals.  Every time the mail passes under the barcode reader the Planet Code information is electronically scanned and stored for retrieval as a scheduled ftp or directly from the Confirm service Web site. The only limitation to this service is the exact minute the recipient receives and opens the envelope is unknown, but it can be assumed that the carrier route scan would be very close to the time of final delivery. The ability to forecast when a recipient will receive their target mail item, such direct mail materials, financial statements, checks, and even catalogs, will be a huge benefit from Confirm.

Enhancing Customer Service

When Confirm was first introduced the primary utilization focused on large retailers using it to track their invoice statements and accompanying remittance or reply envelopes to forecast cash flow and staffing needs to process incoming checks. Many of these large retailers quickly realized Confirm could also be used to mitigate their collection and call center efforts. These retailers recognized the Confirm tracking information eased customer aggravation due to mistimed collection notices and calls. The tracking data was used to issue reprieves on late payment fees after confirming customers were not receiving their statements in time to submit payment by designated due dates, or their payments were in transit. The Confirm Service allows companies to track when the client will receive the intended mailer to ensure enough time for the client to review the statement, and send a payment through standard first class mail within the due date period.

Common business practice includes the generation of notices of overdue payments or collection notices based on a date or a system trigger. If outgoing statements were delayed in their mailing in certain regions, it is far more customer friendly to hold notices to the ZIP codes experiencing delays, rather than aggravate the client with an ill-timed mailing. Recently the VP of information Technology for a local telecommunications company, described how Confirm improved customer service at his company. “PlanetConfirm has brought us a higher level of customer satisfaction and reduced cost of customer retention. The reduced stop payments/re-issues, costly connect/disconnects improved the management value of historical delivery results, and enabled direct CSR knowledge of customer payment status.” Because Confirm technology provided timely and accurate data pertaining to outgoing mail pieces and incoming payments, the local telco is more accurately able to staff their call centers with the forecasted rise and fall of call volumes.

Confirm Your Marketing Campaigns

Many companies are now integrating Confirm into their marketing campaigns. Confirm enhances marketing programs by providing timing information about marketing pieces reaching targeted markets in support of promotions to heighten store, catalog, and Web traffic. This allows for improved response rates by coordinating e-mail or telemarketing calls with the in-home direct mail receipt as predicted by the Confirm tracking data.

One of the world’s largest financial institutions uses multiple print vendors throughout the United States to send more than 96 million pieces of credit card application mailers annually to drive call-in traffic in support of special sign-on interest rate promotions for new applicants. Among the time-sensitive mailings are many different versions designed for different segmented customers.

A key factor in the success of using Confirm for marketing efforts is the understanding of establishing and tracking the direct mail efforts. Unlike a financial institution’s monthly statement mailing where a robust coding methodology is used to uniquely identify every statement, coding the first and last piece of each marketing campaign bundle will provide enough information to coordinate simultaneous marketing efforts across multiple designated demographic segments.

The USPS expends a large effort learning about each client’s business and goals to guarantee what a client can reasonably expect from Confirm. As part of the initial certification process, and subsequent mailings, the USPS Confirm group coordinates 20-mail piece sampling submitted by the mailers containing all barcodes for evaluation and validation of maximum scan rates. Corrections can be made and samples resubmitted to ensure good scan read rates. More than 90% of the customers who tried the Confirm service have remained with the program because of the superior customer support offered by the USPS Confirm team. Coordinating the timing of the direct mail piece and determining when the prospect receives a cross-media follow-on is critical.

Independent research has verified mail recipients display maximum interest when a well-designed cross market e-mail campaign arrived less than 48 hours after the arrival of a like designed direct mail piece. If the cross market email arrived before the direct mail piece or more than 48 hours after the direct mailing, the prospect’s recognition of the marketing message was reduced and the coordinated intention of the two efforts were significantly reduced. Rather than complementing each other and increasing the desire to act, buy, or sign on, the two marketing efforts were viewed as separate.

How it Works

Courtesy of USPS Users Guide 1

What is the Potential ROI with PlanetConfirm?

We assisted a Dallas based telecommunication company on a basic ROI analysis on the implementation of the PlanetConfirm solution. The scope of the project was defined to ensure a quantifiable benefit could be realized in near-term goals. 

Near-term benefits of the project include:

• Decreased collection costs by reducing the number of outbound Predictive-Dialer calls (and resulting return calls) by eliminating calls to customers who mailed their payment.
• Reducing the number of outbound suspension letters (and resulting return calls) by eliminating letters to customers who mailed their payment.
• Improve customer service by allowing call center staff to track customer mail pieces in near real time and take appropriate action.

To quantify these benefits in terms of real costs, conservative estimates of savings were based on actual elements from customer data and cost metrics.

In 2005, the local Telco mailed 856,000 suspension letters to customers at a cost of $2.98 per letter, with a total cost of $2,550,880.00.  If PLANET Confirm technology reduced the volume of suspension letters by just 1%, the savings would be as follows:

8560 Suspension Letters not mailed x $2.98 = $25,508 savings annually.

Similarly, the local Telco suspended 132,000 customers and restored service for 94,000 customers. The suspend/resume action required a provider work order with a cost of $5.26 per action.  In the case a full suspend/resume the cost would be $10.52 in combined work orders.  If PLANET Confirm technology could reduce the suspend/resume volume by 1%, the savings to the local Telco would be as follows:

940 customers not suspend/resumed x $10.52 = $9,888 savings annually

In the same year the local Telco answered 802,000 collections calls.  It was assumed the calls were in response to suspension letters. The average cost per call answered was $2.36.  If the answered call volume were to decrease by 1% due to the implementation of PLANET Confirm, the savings would be as follows:

8020 calls avoided x $2.36 = $18,927 savings annually

Even with a conservative improvement of just 1% in each of these areas, the total savings the local Telco would realize could exceed $54,323.00. It’s acknowledged these are over simplified calculations where many other factors could influence the overall costs, but for illustrative purposes it demonstrates that even a small change in efficiency can have a direct impact to the bottom line.

What Does The Future Hold?

This article has demonstrated some of the near-term ROI for a solid implementation of PlanetConfirm, but what are some of the long-term benefits? What value does the Confirm service offer your organization?

• Leveraging PLANET Code technology to improve direct mail timing
• Monitoring USPS performance
• Fine tuning business processes based on specific mail performance
• Integration of PLANET Code data with business work-flow to improve organizational efficiency and reduce costs
• Application of PLANET Code technology to customer suspend/resume processes
• Use of PLANET Code technology to provide advance notice of mail order volume to predict staffing needs
• Potential elimination or addition of lockbox locations across geographical areas due to mail delivery times

Please contact iGneiTe for more information on PlanetConfirm, USPS Confirm, and planet code technology. 972-931-5444.

Confirm subscription fees are $2,000 for three months and up to 15 million scans, $4,500 annually for up to 50 million scans, and $10,000 annually for unlimited scans. Visit the www.PlanetConfirm.com Web site or the USPS web site mailtracking.usps.com or call 972-931-5444 for additional information.

Author:
Andrew Sisson is the managing Partner of iGneiTe, LLC, a Dallas, TX based professional services organization specializing in the OSS process chain for the communications industry. iGneiTe also provides convergent billing consulting and advanced web solutions for internets, extranets, intranets and web portals.

Andrew has over 10 years of database experience in Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, and UDB. He currently travels the world teaching cross database platforms to experienced DBA teams. He can be contacted for further information at .

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