Did you know letters[1] can be tracked as they move through the United States Postal Service?  Mail that is correctly coded, prepared, and submitted to USPS can be tracked as it moves from machine to machine throughout the postal system.  The granularity of this tracking data can be as coarse as a container containing hundreds of letters to as fine as a single mail piece.

Also, replies to your correspondence can be tracked as well.  You can track a payment stub being returned, for example.  This could help you with cash flow forecasting as well as properly staffing your payment processing center.  Another example might be a survey that is being returned.  Again, knowing which persons are responding and the volumes can help plan staffing to deal with surges in phone calls and/or other inbound communications.

What types of communications can be tracked?

Delivery of First Class “snail mail”, certified mail, parcels, email, and commercial services, such as UPS and FedEx can be tracked as they are on their way to the recipient.

In the case of “snail mail”, USPS® offers a service called Informed Visibility®, which was formerly known as IMB Tracing™, and before that, Confirm®.  Mail that is properly barcoded, submitted to USPS electronically, in an appropriate mail class, can be tracked.  For these mail pieces, electronic records containing location, type of equipment, and timestamps, are captured.  “Logical” delivery events are recorded as well to indicate assumed events such as the final delivery by the postal carrier.

Raw data from USPS looks something like this:

Along with StatifyKPI™, QuestMark consolidates this information into a searchable user-friendly format that looks like this:

Here you can see the progression of the mail piece as it made its way through two machines at zip code 76161 to its final destination at zip code 76137.

In cases where the mail was undeliverable, returned to sender, or slated for secure destruction[2], StatifyKPI™ will provide this information as well

Why should you track your letters?

Tracking mail provides several benefits:

• Knowing that letters were successfully delivered helps plan the next steps in your business process.
• You can apply metrics to your mailing campaigns and better schedule and plan future mailings.
• You can staff your call center in anticipation of a large influx of payments and other types of responses.
• You can project cash flow when you know that payments have been mailed.

Contact QuestMark to work with you to develop a winning strategy.

[1] “Letter” refers to anything you might send to a customer.  These can include Notices, Postcards, Invoices, Statements, Jury Summonses, Tax notices, Delinquency Notices, Late Notices, Payments, and anything else you can think of.

[2] This is an optional USPS service where undeliverable mail is intercepted, securely shredded, and recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H4KJVA2vik