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The sheer diversity and complexity of today's direct marketing programmes mean that mailing houses are playing an increasingly important role in determining the success of marketing campaigns.
Failure to despatch on time or fundamental mailing errors can result in serious financial consequences and damage to the brand.
No wonder then that many agencies and end users are building business partnerships with mailing houses capable of providing quality production services and ongoing advice and support for their high volume, high frequency campaigns.
So 'quality' is now beginning to challenge 'price' as the primary method of selecting a mailing house, particularly if the end user wishes to develop a long term partnership. But with more than 150 mailing houses registered with the DMA, how can agencies or clients choose a company that gives quality more than just lip service?
Let's assume that you have already undertaken some desk research and are satisfied that each of the mailing houses on your short list can provide the facilities and capacity you require.
Even before you start making arrangements for site visits, you should try to resolve the price vs. quality question. If you only buy on price alone, send out your brief, take the lowest tender and keep your fingers crossed.
Alternatively, you may want to assess the potential impact on your business should any of your mailings be compromised e.g.
- Impact on sales and profitability.
- Damage to your brand.
- Damage to customer loyalty.
- Cost of handling complaints.
- Costly changes to call centre and fulfilment arrangements.
- Cost of wasted mailings.
- Damage to your reputation.
This assessment will of course vary according to each organisation and the product or service they are selling. However, it may well help to provide an indication of the relative importance of price and quality and the premium you are happy to pay for a quality service.
So how can you judge the quality of the services available from the mailing houses on your short list?
Here's a few simple guidelines which may help:
- Does the mailing house have recognised quality accreditations e.g. QMP, IIP, ISO 9000? You can be sure that any mailing house which has achieved recognition under any of these schemes takes quality seriously and that it forms an important part of their culture.
- As part of any mailing house credentials presentation, you should expect a detailed explanation of their quality procedures. Don't be satisfied unless you are told how quality is managed from start to finish. Evaluate closely the processes and procedures which enable each part of the production to be checked and progressed to the next stage. Audit approval processes, checklists and any other quality documentation.
- Check how long quality procedures have been in place. Ask for a job bag which is at least twelve months old. What kind of quality documentation exists?
- Make a particular point of checking how mailing briefs are developed and agreed by both parties. It goes without saying that this is a crucial part of the quality process and you should be completely satisfied that there are very robust mechanisms in place for creating an exact specification for each separate project.
- Check whether the commitment to quality runs through the entire organisation. Make sure to request a site tour. Ask for their quality control sheets. Ask how often checks are made. Ask the kind of questions for which you would expect re-assuring answers e.g. How do you ensure that the mailing is enclosed in the correct sequence? How do you ensure we don't lose stock? How can you ensure the laser output matches the 'sign off'? If people on the shop floor have difficulty in answering these types of questions, this should raise some serious doubts.
- Ask the mailing house for permission for you to obtain telephone references from two or three of their clients. Apart from the normal 'reference' questions, ask how any mistakes were handled and corrected. Mistakes can occur in any mailing house - but it is the openness and honesty of the mailing house in identifying and advising clients of problems that is critical to developing a solid partnership.
- Check whether they are happy for you to undertake a further site visit once mailing operations are underway - this is normally very helpful for both the client and mailing house to iron out any production difficulties.
- One final thought after you have selected a mailing house. Do ensure that you have an early warning system in place to immediately check the quality of samples. And do ensure that seeds are inserted into your mailing file before it reaches the mailing house. There have been some notorious examples of mailing houses identifying and correcting seed packs which disguises an impending customer relations disaster.
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Checklist: what to include on your mailing brief (PDF)
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Helpful information
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