Mailers Should Demand Quality

Today’s topic “Read, Reconcile, Direct or Redirect and Deliver”

First, I must thank the mailers who are sending me the poor-quality windowed envelopes to my mailbox. I have a pretty good supply coming in sadly enough. The carnage is abundant!

I would assume that most of the mail owners who are sending me these envelopes are unaware that their brand is tainted by the window quality issue.  BTW, for those of you that know me…. I don’t think this situation is funny at all and I worry about the impact it has in the USPS automation process!  

So, what is Read, Reconcile, Direct or Redirect and Deliver? It’s this simple, it is the USPS process for sorting and delivering the mail. The USPS uses some of the most sophisticated electronic mail sorting and software systems in the world. Couple that with quality mail and you have the on time delivery and earned work sharing discounts protected. The USPS equipment and software have been designed to lift the address information/IMB off the mailpiece and send the mail on its way at a speed of 12.0 pieces per second. Read, Reconcile, Direct or Redirect for delivery. It all works great until you lower the quality and lose the ability to process the mail properly. When there are quality issues, like in the pictures in this article, it hinders the sorting process and adds additional cost to USPS processing. Extra costs they can't afford to pay today.

Now, here comes the window film lesson on poor quality. The industry refers to the envelope window film used today as poly. However, in the plastics world poly can represent polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene or polystyrene. Four very different products used in various markets and for specific applications. But, the word "poly" used in the envelope world and mailing industry has always been Polystyrene until recently when another "poly" showed up in the mailing envelope industry. Only Polystyrene was developed for envelope manufacturing, the inserting process and postal automation processing in mind. The other poly is a crossover product from the food and packaging industry. I know because Multi-Plastics, Inc. represents the largest polypropylene manufacture in the world and there is a reason why it costs less and the evidence is right in your mailbox! Everything is relative to price. Polystyrene is the workhorse in this industry globally and it has not failed to protect mailing customers discounts for over 40 years. For that reason alone it is the number one product by choice in the world today. 

Polystyrene is the right product for the job and designed to enhance the quality of the mail, not to challenge what is acceptable at the lowest quality threshold at the USPS. 

When window film is taken for granted it can lead to the overall quality of a mailing being compromised. It diminishes the envelopes value and can create unwanted postal processing issues.

When you examine the cost of the window in the overall process it is actually one of the least expensive components in the mailing itself. In most cases the window represents “less than” 8% of the cost of an envelope. Trading a small savings of an 8% component for reduced quality can only lead to increased liability. Understanding this to be the case you have to question why in the world anyone would commoditize the window and take this risk?

The window is the gateway to processing the mail accurately and like in the above pictures can affect the brand who is sending the mailing. Poor quality mail can give the consumer a false perception that the product being represented by the mailing is of poor quality as well. If this wasn't true then mailers wouldn't care and demand specific logo colors be matched. Fact is, it's their brand and it matters!

Unfortunately today, envelopes are seen as a commodity by the mailing industry. The reality is envelopes are one of the most important components that allows the mailer to achieve their goal. Poor quality just doesn't reflect poorly on you but can affect the processing of your customers mail. When an envelope contains a window the USPS must lift/collect the IMB or address information through the window. When a window looks like the pictures in this article processing speeds are effected because the window can obstruct automation's ability to collect that data. These wrinkles can also affect the inserting process and predata verification during inserting. The USPS technology reads on a fixed angle and when this information is lifted from under or through a window that is wrinkled it alters the cameras ability to collect the data behind it.

When wrinkles are present in windowed envelopes and not laying flat they create something called light diffraction & diffusion and/or specular reflectance. This specular reflectance phenomenon causes light to be trapped on the underside of the window and for light to not penetrate through the window. Wrinkles cause light to bounce around creating a situation that can either blind, block, or create a flashback limiting the cameras ability to lift the image/font or IMB. Either way it is a misread.

There is no argument that can be made to support wrinkled envelope windows and the impact on the automation process. The only time wrinkles in a window work is if you are showing the wrinkled shar pei behind it!

At this point in my discussion if this information didn't raise alarm then maybe the next few paragraphs will.

Insurance companies, banks, utility companies, money lenders, and nonprofit organizations all mail replies inside their OE. The reply envelope inside is provided to allow customers to promptly remit payment/money back to the mailer. Imagine now a scenario where the CRM with a wrinkled window has caused a delay in processing the mail back to you. Mail containing payment that was suppose to be delivered on a Friday is now being delivered to you on Monday. The question is how much money did you save your customer using window film that was wrinkled in their OE or reply envelope? If you are not sure of the answer you might want to consult the mailers CFO regarding lost investment revenue opportunities and/or cash flow!

The USPS has provided written guidelines in the DMM, the best website in our industry, created an abundance of quick service guides, tips and even has defined what good quality mail should look like. Meanwhile some envelope manufactures are rolling the dice with quality. Rolling the dice at your customers expense. Making decisions to use film that yields marginal quality results at best and in most cases mailers aren't even aware. This minimum quality substitute lowers the mailpiece to the lowest acceptable standard putting the mailer at complete risk and on the brink of disaster. In a world that demands high quality and an industry that is faced with many challenges the window in an envelope should be taken for granted only when using the designed and proper poly, Polystyrene!

That’s my rant for the day and hope you will take something away that will help improve mail quality when and where you can.

We are in this together and the best way to help the USPS and mailers is to raise the bar on quality not seek an acceptable low.