When outsourcing transactional communications, you still want control over each job. Without this capability, you could be at risk of noncompliance. Tracking mail can be simple and accessible with the right partner.
If you’re considering transitioning from in-house operations or leaving your current vendor, you should still have a full view. To keep visibility clear, you should consider these criteria when choosing a printer.
Tracking Mail Transparency
Do you currently have a way for tracking mail through the production cycle to USPS delivery? If not, you can’t have a truly transparent process. In many cases, you lose this after you transmit data to a vendor.
Without insight into each phase of printing, mailing, and delivery, you’ll have doubts about compliance, security, accuracy, and quality. It shouldn’t be a secret; you need checks and balances along the way.
Tracking Mail Begins at File Processing
To eventually accurately track each communication, the workflow must begin with file processing. It should be secure and compliant and deliver validation. You send your data files, and the provider kicks off an automation process that includes:
- Confirmation emails of file receipt, size, and date
- Alerts if there are any missing files
- Routing files to layout
- Providing approval files for your review
From the start, to begin tracking mail, the transmission and processing of files must be robust and accurate.
Address Hygiene Enables Wrong Address Visibility and Correction
During file processing, address hygiene tools are also crucial to visibility. Inaccurate or incomplete addresses end up as non-deliverable, costing you money.
Address hygiene works by using technology that
- Captures USPS address changes
- Corrects misspellings
- Compares to a bad address database
With greater accuracy in addresses, you eliminate waste and ensure the successful delivery of communications.
Scheduling Production and Job-Level Accountability
Once files are ready for production, there’s another step that will support tracking mail downstream. You should have control over when your jobs run to ensure you meet any regulations about on-time delivery.
Also, in this stage, you want job-level accountability. In this tracking framework, jobs have unique numbers, which follow the print file from processing to invoicing. It would accompany the communications throughout production into mail injection.
The sheet has all the metadata associated with the job, including stationery, instructions, and more.
By having this job number, you can easily view the movement of communications, enabling visibility into everything documents go through during production.
Tracking Mail: Following Each Letter Through the Mail Stream
Once the document or statement is ready to enter the mail stream, you want to be tracking mail through it’s delivery. How is this possible without special services?
Transactional print and mail companies have the means to do this by:
- Using the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb), a 65-bar postal service barcode used for sorting and tracking
- Providing real-time updates through an online document management system
- Confirming the date and time of delivery of the communication
- Informing you of the time it takes to send letters across the country
All these features and more are available with trakPCI. This web-based and secure portal delivers information about all your jobs in one spot. Beyond mail tracking, trakPCI expands visibility in many ways.
You can pull a report based on just about any data point. You can also view accounting data and postage costs. It’s also a depository for archives, bi-directional confirmation reports, and PDF samples.
Tracking Mail and So Much More with trakPCI
If you still want control of your transactional mailings, you need a tool like trakPCI. The visibility it offers enables you to understand operations in many ways. Being able to manage all your letters in one centralized place ensures you’re always in the know.
Learn more about trakPCI and its capabilities today.
