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As appearing in The Seybold Report - Nov. 20, 2005

Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call 717-263-5768, fax 717-263-8945, or e-mail to clint@clintbolte.com.

Confirm™ Service Key to Facilitating
Integrated Multi-Media Projects

As one-to-one marketing becomes common place, these resulting complex multi-media projects involving digital print, fulfillment, mailing services, e-mail broadcasting and telemarketing will demand timely coordination to assure optimum responsiveness from the intended market targets. Many pundits feel that the answer to this facilitation requirement most practically will be "smart mail." The heart of the United States Postal Service's vision for smart mail is their Confirm™ Service.

This article will provide an overview of Confirm, describe a number of proven applications and highlight some case studies. Further it will discuss the latest technology changes announced by the USPS to enhance this capability, and suggest ways that printers can become involved for the benefit of their more sophisticated clients.

First released in 1998, the Confirm™ Service utilizes barcode data to provide near real time tracking of both outbound and incoming (reply) mail streams to its mailing service subscribers. This includes first-class mail, periodicals, standard mail letters and flats that are both sent or received. Each time the mail passes under the barcode reader, i.e., when first date and time stamped upon induction, when sorted, and when going through the various processing facilities, that information can be electronically picked off the Confirm™ service web site or received in a scheduled electronic file transfer. While the exact minute the recipient receives and opens the envelope is not known, it can be comfortably assumed that the carrier route scan would be within hours of the ultimate delivery. The most time sensitive mail are the ones that will benefit from this capability, such as financial statements, checks, certain direct mail pieces and even catalogs.

The initial application was large retailers using Confirm™ to track their invoice statements and accompanying reply envelopes to better predict cash flow and the assignment of manning resources to handle the manual processing of incoming checks. Many quickly learned that this forewarned information minimized customer frustration due to ill-timed dunning notices or consideration of the issuance of reprieves on late payments after confirming that the customers were not receiving their statements in time to submit payment by designated due dates.

At the recent National Postal Forum the Print/Mail Operations Manager for Prudential Financial, Sue Taylor, described her firm's learning curve with Confirm™ which resulted in improved customer service, "a high level of confidence in predicting delivery," reducing the stop payments/re-issues, additional proof of mailing and the management value of historical delivery results.

Soon call centers were more optimally manned as Confirm™ data on outgoing mail pieces would more accurately help anticipate incoming call volumes. More recently Confirm™ became part of integrated marketing programs by (1) ensuring marketing pieces reached targeted audiences in time to support promotions and to boost store, catalog or web traffic or (2) bumping response rates by timing e-mail or telemarketing calls to follow on the in-home direct mail receipt as predicted by the electronic Confirm™ tracking data.

Another Confirm™ Service panelist at the 2004 National Postal Forum was Sterling Jewelers Database Marketing Mailing List Manager, Rachelle Korland. The world's largest retail jeweler works with multiple print vendors throughout the United States in sending 60+ million pieces of advertising mail annually to drive retail traffic in support of special in-store promotions for their 1,050 locations. These extremely time sensitive mailings have dozens of creative versions for each mailing based upon logo and identified customer segments. "One of the key objectives is to support TV, radio, and print campaigns to build brand awareness," acknowledged Korland.

Sterling made a number of early mistakes before learning to optimize this valuable Confirm™ resource. Some of these mistakes included; (1) unnecessarily complicated coding methodology, (2) expectation that each piece would be scanned only once, (3) placing check digit in the wrong place and (4) some of their service bureau and print vendors were unprepared to apply the PLANETCODE. Additionally they learned that they do not need the detailed information that Prudential Financial described, as individual checks are not being processed with Sterling's advertising promotional mailings. "We learned that coding the first and last piece of each bundle was adequate," remarked Korland. This reduced scanning volume allowed Sterling to choose a less costly subscription level for their Confirm™ Service and still realize an excellent tracking population.

With Sterling being one of the early and certainly highest volume users of the Confirm™ Service, the USPS acknowledged some valuable "lessons learned" from their own perspective as well. Earl Johnson, the USPS Supervisor-Confirm Support out of the National Customer Support Center, stated that his group spends an inordinate amount of time learning about the client's business to assure reasonable expectation levels for Confirm™ from the client. Similarly to assure quality scans Mr. Johnson's group coordinates the 20-mail piece sampling submitted by the mailers containing all barcodes for evaluation. Corrections can be made for resubmission of samples again to assure good scan read rates. This USPS customer support success rate is reflected in a 90+% retention rate of customers trying and staying with the Confirm™ program.

Coordinating the timing of the direct mail piece and the prospect's receipt of a cross media follow on is critical. At the 2003 Print Buyers Oasis the Vice President of Marketing for Wallace Printing, Douglas Fitzgerald gave experiences on the effective use of multi-media. He commented that independent research and his own firm's experience verified that optimum response rates were realized when the well structured e-mail broadcast arrived within 24-48 hours following the arrival of the similarly designed direct mail piece. If the e-mail arrived either before the direct mail piece or three days or more after the mailing, the complimentary intention of the two efforts seem to have lower recall by the prospect. Instead of complimenting one another and increasing the motivation to act/buy/sign on, the two cross media efforts were perceived to be independent.

The transition from a promotion piece to a marketing program is becoming more pronounced and by its nature more complex. The Electronic Document Systems Foundation's study entitled "Printing in the Age of the Web and Beyond: How Society Will Communicate in the 21st Century" (edsf.org) observed that graphic communications jobs are becoming more complex. In fact nearly a third of the jobs (32%), which represented 60% of the total print revenues, were either complex or very complex. The point is not to be overwhelmed by this complexity but rather to incorporate systems and procedures to best manage these processes for the benefit of the client.

For printers offering fulfillment services and embracing the "satisfied recipient" concept, Confirm™ will allow them to quantify their proof of mailing as well as accurately predict response rate curves when part of an on-going marketing support program. With historical knowledge the service can help to optimize inventory levels and smooth labor demands for pick and pack order processing.

To date Confirm™ has relied upon two different 12-14 character bar codes that are ink jetted on to each mail piece. The POSTNET code is below the address while the PLANET code symbology is the inverse of the POSTNET code and is above the address. To save time, effort, and improve reliability the next generation of a single 11-digit barcode, called a 4-state barcode, will be replacing these other two codes to be applied to all mail. This will also further simplify the universal tracing and tracking of mail from entry to destination.

One of the problems being experienced early on in the 4-state barcode testing is the difficulty of some digital printers to print clearly and sharply enough to be read accurately at very high scan rates through the USPS automated sorting equipment. These difficulties are posed by some inkjet droplets being laid down on certain incompatible coatings and even using some highly absorbent substrates. PIA/GATF has engineered one of its thorough tests involving many of the various digital print engine vendors to analyze how they endure the rigors of these high-speed sorting units. The results will be reported at the upcoming PIA/GATF Tech Alert 2005 Conference February 7, 2005. This author will report those findings in an article on the highlights of that conference.

While the USPS will be transitioning from the POSTNET and PLANET coding structure to the new 4-state barcode, there really is no reason for printers to wait for that transition to benefit their clients from the existing, proven Confirm program. For those firms who believe that you don't manage until you measure, Confirm™ could be a vital measurement tool.

Confirm subscription fees are $2,000 for 3 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 Confirm website at mailtracking.usps or call 800-238-3150 for additional information. Your IT Manager should get a copy of the CONFIRM™ Service User Guide, Publication 197, September 2004.

Actually the tracking of mail entry and arrival has been available for several years by means of the USPS Confirm Service. Advance delivery information is available on both outbound mail going to customers and incoming hard-copy reply mail for automation compatible first class mail, standard mail, periodicals, and flats. This allows direct mail solicitations to be synchronized with telemarketing or opt-in e-mail broadcasts. Deliver information on invoices allow more efficient staffing of call centers. Embarrassing miscues for such legal notifications such as insurance cancellation or dunning notices might be avoided and thus improve client relations.

Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call 717-263-5768, fax 717-263-8945, or e-mail to clint@clintbolte.com.