How many emails reach inboxes but remain unopened? How many letters go undelivered, never making it to the doormat? Sound familiar?You may need document tracking!
It’s reported that 51% of emails are deleted within two seconds and Royal Mail estimates around 500,000 letters are lost in the post every year. Are your important and time-critical communications part of these statistics?
The truth is, without tracking, it’s very hard to know. It’s possible to buy services to track if an email or letter has reached its destination, but often, unless you get a response, it’s hard to know if your attached or enclosed document has been read.
Why do documents need to be tracked? Here are our three key reasons for document tracking
- Missed attendance at events and appointments are expensive Delegates who fail to attend events and people who Do Not Attend (DNA) appointments cost organisations thousands of pounds. Having advanced intelligence that reveals when documents have not been opened allows you to take action early to encourage attendance or reallocate the appointment slot to someone else
- Unengaging content reduces response rates
Knowing the percentage of people opening and viewing your correspondence will help you analyse which messages are most effective to improve future communications. - The customer isn’t always right!
When you send documents that your contacts don’t always want to receive, the familiar white lie ‘I didn’t receive your document’ can impact on a payment collection or start date for a change of terms. With document tracking you know who’s being genuine and who simply chose not to engage.
The need to legally comply: document tracking offers a vital audit trail
There’s no doubt that it costs money to create communications, however, the true cost of a missed letter is often much higher than the face value of print and postage. If what you’re sending is time-critical – or you have a legal duty to provide regulatory information within a defined time – document delivery is essential. A lack of tracking can result in a failure to uphold a legal obligation.
Time and resources are exhausted in other ways too, when documents fail to be delivered. If you have no way of knowing who has received and opened a letter or email, how do you know which contacts need to be followed up? Especially in cases such as an appointment where a missed contact could result in financial loss.
For the NHS, missed GP and hospital appointments cost almost £1bn ever year. How much is a lack of document tracking costing you?
Datagraphic’s document automation solution, Aceni, allows you to host documents online, for your contacts to view in a protected environment. The document tracking option allows you to see who has engaged with your communication. You can then deploy resources more effectively to follow up the disengaged or retain an audit trail of those who are responsive.
See how Aceni’s intuitive document tracking can help you improve document response rates.
