Why Subcontract Processing Of Your Invoices, Bills & Statements?

Making the decision between keeping your print-to-mail tasks in-house or outsourcing them to a print and mail outsource provider can be a difficult one, especially since there are pros and cons on both sides. At Towne Mailer, we understand that outsourcing printing and mailing isn’t right for every company and that you should weigh your options carefully before making the best decision for your interests and the interests of your customers and clients.

Below, we will navigate, step by step, the process of deciding whether or not to outsource, including answering the following questions:

• What are the best reasons for outsourcing my printing and mailing jobs?
• Should my business insource or outsource printing and mailing?
• How can I choose the best invoice/statement print and mailing outsource service?
• How can I set up invoice/statement printing and mailing outsourcing for my business?
• What if I need to switch my invoice, statement or letter outsource printing and mailing service?

Benefits Of Contract Out Your Financial Related Mailing Processes

Some businesses greatly benefit from outsourcing printing and mailing needs, but others would be better off keeping the task in-house. How do you know which one is best for your business?

To guide you, here are a few situations in which businesses generally benefit from print and mail outsourcing services:

• You mail a significant number of pieces of mail each month. If you are mailing more than 200 invoices/statements each month, it’s probably financially savvy of you to hand the task over to someone who can do the job more efficiently and for less money.
• You are short on square footage. If your business is getting cramped, outsourcing your printing and mailing jobs can be a great way to free up all sorts of space. Printers and other mailing machinery can take up huge amounts of space, as can storage for paper and envelopes.
• Your employees are overwhelmed with multitasking. Employees in small businesses often wear many hats, but having too many hats can lead to mistakes, slow turnaround, and disgruntled workers. Outsourcing your printing and mailing can let your employees focus on fewer tasks and become experts at certain skills.
• You want to save time and money. If you mail a significant amount of invoices/statements each month, you will more than likely save money by outsourcing your printing and mailing jobs–it’s as simple as that. Since we specialize in only printing, processing, and mailing invoices/letters, we can do so with speed, accuracy, and timeliness that cannot be mirrored by businesses that don’t specialize in our arena.

Weighing The Pros & Cons

Outsourcing is a wonderful choice for the majority of small and medium-sized businesses, but many of the potential clients that we speak with understandably want to weigh the pros and cons for themselves before taking the plunge and letting go of control. To help you make your choice on your own, we’ve outlined the biggest benefits and the biggest disadvantages to outsourcing your invoice and statement printing and mailing.

The Benefits Include:

• You save a significant amount of money on your printing and mailing tasks.
• Your employees save time and effort that can be reapplied to other tasks.
• You can be assured that your mailings are accurate–and that bad addresses are reported quickly.
• You can free up office space by eliminating room for printing and mail processing.
• You can be assured that your bills and statements are designed and formatted to maximize clarity, minimize customer service calls, and promote payment.
• Your mail has a very fast turnaround time, and your bills are paid more quickly.
• You can simplify your business and focus on your main task at hand.

The Drawbacks Include:

• You can’t oversee the printing and mailing process directly in person.
• All of your operations are not contained under a single roof.
• You don’t get to keep absolutely all of your business functions local.

Generally, if your tendency is to micromanage tasks and stay in complete control of your business, outsourcing these jobs may not be the best decision for your business. But if you are looking for high-quality ways to reduce costs and save time, while ratcheting up the efficiency of your mailings, you may wish to consider working with Towne Mailer.

Choosing The Right Provider For Your Business’ Needs

If you’re ready to shop for a printing and mailing outsource provider for your business, don’t make the mistake of going with the first one that you find online or hear about from another source. Instead, be sure to call the business, talk to their team, and get a clear idea of how they run and what working with them will be like.

What Questions Should You Ask?

• How do you determine the cost and how much will my regular monthly jobs cost me to outsource?
• What is included with your services? For example, do you offer reports on the mailings, extra security, or any guarantees? Are there any extra charges involved with specific types of mailings?
• How do you ensure quality and prevent against mistakes during each step of the printing and mailing process?
• How do you ensure security and prevent against breaches during each step of the printing and mailing process?
• What kind of businesses do you work with? Have you ever worked with a business like mine?
• What do you do to ensure quality customer service?
• What happens in the instance of a mistake or security breach? Have these incident occurred in the past?
• Do you specialize in certain types of mailings or certain types of letters?
• What is your turnaround time, and is that time guaranteed in any way?

After receiving the answers to these questions, the right provider for you should be clear. At this point, it’s likely that you can engage in test job or project to see if you work well together.

How To Set Up Our Services

If you’ve reviewed all of the above information and are confident that you’re ready to outsource your printing and mailing tasks, you can proceed in four easy steps:

• Completely review your current printing and mailing processes. If you are going to hand over this job smoothly, you should know exactly what you need and how it currently gets done in-house now. Our team will likely have some questions for you about your process as part of your transition, so it’s great if you are ready with answers.
• Research your outsourcing businesses. The next step is finding an outsource provider that fits your specific needs. Look for an outsource provider that helps businesses of your size and that helps fill your specific mailing needs (for example, some outsourcers might specialize in marketing pieces and fliers, while others specialize in invoices and statements).
• Ask for quotes and interview your options. As we said above, don’t go with your first option–take a little time to talk to each outsourcer and ask the questions we listed above. In addition, ask for a quote so that you can compare prices and see how much you can save with each choice. It might save you a lot of time and a lot of grief later.
• Transition the tasks to your new outsource provider. Before your outsource provider can completely take over your printing and mailing tasks, they will have to work with you to understand your needs, streamline your process, and make sure that everything goes smoothly from start to finish.

Deciding To Switch

What if you are already outsourcing your printing and mailing tasks, but haven’t been happy with the results? In this case, your decision might not be whether or not to outsource, but whether or not to switch outsourcers.

Here Are Just A Few Red Flags That You May Wish To Consider When Thinking About Switching:

• Errors are taking place. Are your customers not getting the pieces of mail that they need to receive? Or are they getting their mail extremely late? Regular mistakes by your outsource provider should not be tolerated, as they hurt your business and its reputation.
• You could do the job faster. If your outsourcer is slow, your customers and clients might not be getting their mail on time, which means that they are slower to pay their bills and statements. Your outsource provider should be able to do the job faster than you were doing it. They should also have a deadline guarantee.
• You aren’t saving as much money as you’d like. Are you curious to see if you could save more money by switching? Choosing a printing and mailing outsourcer that is extremely efficient leads to money in the bank for you. Don’t hesitate to request a few free quotes to see what the competition is like.
• You don’t have a fabulous relationship with your outsource provider. At Towne Mailer, we go out of our way to forge meaningful, personal, and long relationships with our clients–and we’ve worked with many of them for years. If you don’t feel like your outsource provider relationship is helping your business and making your day better, it might be time to take a look around for someone new.

Request A Free Quote From Towne Mailer Today

If you’ve read this far and outsource printing and mailing sounds like it may be a beneficial option for your business’ printing and mailing needs, we invite you to contact our team today to find out more about our services, ask any questions you may have, and find out just how much you can save by partnering with us. To request a free, no-obligation quote, please call us today at (877) 882-6245 or fill out our quick online contact form.