In previous episodes we've looked as solicitations and welcome kits, as well as some of the basic guidelines for building great, effective, multi-channel communication. After the piece on Welcome Kits several of you asked if there was a Kodak Welcome Kit. I have to admit that we don't have a single Kodak Welcome Kit for our customers of our business-to-business products. Everyone who responded from inside of Kodak agrees that it is a great idea, so we'll have to stand by on that one. But, thanks for asking!

You may remember that the Welcome Kit we mentioned in the piece was for a virtual company we called Checkfirst Investments. The pieces were designed by Prinova, and they show fabulous integration of branding and knowledge of customer.  Clearly, when starting with a blank slate it's a bit easier since there isn't legacy communication to deal with.

But, as you move through changes in technology and branding, each effort opens the door to a chance to change your communication options. It's worth keeping in mind.

So, once that Welcome Kit is out the door, the next communication opportunity is usually the monthly bill or statement. What you do with this opportunity to communicate colors the relationship you develop with your customer. It is the single most regular communication you will have with them, and if you do it well it can gain you a customer for life.

So, what are the characteristics of a great statement? Once again, I'll point to the great website at www.canadapost.ca/greatstatements where you can test your statements against a set of characteristics developed by a team of experts. I recommend that everyone try this tool and download the whitepaper because it is completely vendor neutral and concentrates on how well your documents meet their communication obligation.

There is nothing I can add to the great work done by Bill McCalpin, Bill Broddy and Dr. Michael Turton, all Xplor EDPs, on this document!  However, one thing has changed since they did their work... we've had updates to Regulation Z. 

Reg Z? Yep! It's the Truth in Lending Act and it informs how billers provide information about fees, interest rates, and other terms and conditions of loans. It has been under-going a series of reviews and changes, in some cases those changes directly impact your print and mail timelines and your statement design.

Intrigued?  Come back next time and we'll start walking through the changes.

Before I go, congratulations to three Kodak customers on their wins at the PODi Application Awards:  Salmat for ING Direct Solicitation won the Best Practices for TransPromo with their partners Vectis and Digital Alchemy; HansaPrint won for Best Self Promotion for their HansaPress Magazine, and  GM won for best Collateral Management using  Kodak Creo WCS!  Congratulations to all!

Remember that the point of all of this is that to grow your business communication is essential. Don't forget to come say hello on Twitter! Or, here! Add a comment!

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I wanted to start with the pointer, though, because it informs this post. Yes, Andy, we agree that those of us who form the Kodak engine must look to the long term,too. From every corner of the Kodak universe the technologists, engineers,researchers and marketers have been listening to our customers, the market and our sales team members so that we can bring the most valuable and most powerful solutions to market. 

Of course, to date we've had remarkable success. This week several of our customers picked up awards at the 7 ^th Annual PODi Application Forum in Las Vegas,spotlighting the powerful customer communication solutions created using NexPress and Versamark solutions. At the same time we are building new success stories with the growing number of customers adopting our Drop on Demand,VL2000 solution to meet their transaction and direct mail requirements. 

And coming soon,we'll be talking about the first generation of Stream solutions and the first customers who will lead the way in bringing those solutions to their customers.In fact, watch for an announcement shortly that talks to about our first monochrome Stream customer and their application! 

All of this is to say, again, that we hear you Andy. And, we hear our customers. And, we hear the market. All of this listening informs our plans, and lays the ground work for Kodak and our customers to succeed!

Remember that the point of all of this is that to grow your business communication is essential. Don't forget to come say hello on Twitter or, here add a comment!

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Back in December the discussion began with a look at normalizing the look and feel of all of your customer touch points, including everything from direct mail and web pages to the bills and statements. The goal of the exercise is to ensure that you are projecting a consistent image to your customers. It not only enforces your brand, but keeps a rein on the look and feel of your customer communication.

Last time we looked at solicitation communication and offered some guidelines. This time we turn our attention to the package you send to the customer once you have acquired them as a customer. For some companies a new welcome kit is sent each time the customer signs up for a new product or service, while in other organizations it is only on the initial contact with a new customer. Whatever the timing, the goal of the welcome kit should be to truly welcome the customer. That means that it should make it easy for a customer to locate contact information, do some trouble shooting if anything goes awry, and get a sense of other products and services that might be of interest.

With that in mind, what is your Welcome Kit telling your customers?  I pulled out several that came to me in the last few months and found that some were incredibly useful, usually the ones that were customized and personalized. Several that came to me were so large that they were overwhelming and failed to be useful or helpful.

Remember that there are no do-overs on first impressions, so evaluate your welcome kit with the thought of what your mother, grandmother or great aunt might make of it. Does your welcome kit reflect information provided when the customer signed up? Have you made sure that the things they told you are important are featured prominently?

I use an example that we worked on a few years back with the great team at Prinova in Toronto. We wanted to develop a customer communication set that showed best practices in the financial services sector, so we worked with the team at Prinova and used their experience to guide us through the development of the CheckFirstInvestments kit. The Welcome Kit demonstrated how to take information gathered during the sign-up process and reflect it in the order which information is presented. It also provided a view into using a few demographic buckets to inform the design and content of the static areas of the kit.

The story here is that you should be using what the customer has told you to inform how you welcome them. Some of our customers do this incredibly well, working with their clients to create award-winning customer communication. Watch the PODi Application Forum Awards the week of January 19^th for more!

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Let's keep going with the last half of the Top Ten List... remember, the goal is to get you to think about how you are communicating with your customers!

5.  Why are you telling me this?

Several times in the last month I have opened envelopes from companies I do business with to find that they clearly have no idea who I am or where I live. One announced the grand opening of a new store in another state, and invited me to come in. Nothing in my relationship with this provider should indicate that I ever travel to that location.  Another let me know about a change of address for a local office in another country. Again, not something I needed to know, and something they spent money to tell me.

Think before you communicate!

4. Stuffing the Mailbox

How many offers are in your mailbox to change phone service, internet providers, or cable/satellite TV providers? How many mailings do you get from home improvement stores, replacement window companies or flooring providers? I kept mine for the month of December and its truly impressive how many companies think I am a target. It's also impressive how many missed the opportunity. My major remodeling project began in 2003 and ended last year.

If you are sending too many messages to your customer, no matter what channel you use, you risk losing the customer. Take a look at all of the direct mail, online, and statement-based marketing plans and make them work together!

3.  Design That Confuses

I opened one last week that made me stop short. I couldn't tell if I was looking at a billing statement or a direct marketing coupon sheet.  I know that I encourage companies to use their billing statements to promote their products, but if the offers outweigh the business purpose of the document the likelihood of increased calls to the call center is fairly good.

The solution is to have an information architecture and a good understanding of the messaging for each customer-facing communication.

2. Ransom Notes

I mentioned it in other items in the list, but the problem is pervasive. There are millions of typefaces. It is not necessary to use every one of them in every customer communication.

If you do not have a corporate serif and corporate sans serif typeface, this is a good time to work with corporate branding, marketing, and your advisors to establish them, document them, and stick to them. 

Your documents will be easier to read, more consistent in appearance, and you will eliminate the risk of every document creator picking their own favorite typefaces.

1. Static, Unpersonalized, Untargeted, Unversioned Communication from Anyone

I've saved this as my number one request... please take a good, long look at how you communicate with your customers. If you put anything in to the mail that does not acknowledge the customer as an individual, please stop. If you are forcing your customer to read through paragraphs of legalese that pertains to states or countries beyond where they live, please stop. If you are sending me hunting or golfing equipment offers, despite the fact that all I ever buy from you are mechanics tools, please stop.

If you aren't acknowledging your customer by name, please start. If you aren't crafting offers and messages based on what you know about the customer, please start. If you aren't communicating with me as an individual, please start.

I'll step off my soapbox for a bit. Come back next time for more on Statement Design for Welcome Kits!

Don't forget to come say hello on Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/PatMcGrew )! Or, here! Add a comment!

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A quick diversion from the Statement Design story -- It's a new year and time to dust ourselves off and charge forward. As a first step for the year I've been building a list of things poor communication practices that I hope to never see again.

My goal in sharing these with you is to get you to think about how you are communicating with your customers! Let's do this in Late Night Style, and make it a Top Ten List.

10.  Generic Privacy Notice Updates

Why?  Most Privacy Notices are sent due to regulatory obligations, but that doesn't mean that you should toss a generic notice in an envelope and cross it off the list. I have two in my December mail bucket, both from the same credit provider, though covering two different credit accounts.  One appears to be in 6 point type - even with my glasses I cannot actually read it. The other is in a much more readable type size and type face, so points for that, but still gives me information for states other than where I live.

Solution: Let's use what we know about the customer and send out privacy notices that speak to my rights, based on where I live. And, please, let's think about readability! Type size, type face, and formatting all count!

9. Important Information Enclosed

What? You have probably received this in an envelope that may have nothing more than a PO Box addresses on the outside. Mine came on behalf of a department store card. Once again, type so small I can't actually read it, even with my reading glasses. So much white space that it's painful. Based on codes on the bottom it looks like it was designed and produced in October 2008 - so no excuses for it being an old document.  My favorite part of this notice to tell me that there are new terms if I continue to use the card is the fact that there are at least 5 typefaces in use.

8.  Inappropriate Stuffed Offers

You probably get them, too. The stuffers in the billing envelope that offer you daily planners, collectibles, or, in my case, night vision binoculars.  If you want my attention, look at how I do business with you, and add something to the bill or statement to intrigue me. Stuffers generally go straight to the waste bin unless I'm collecting examples!

7. White on Gray; Gray on White

I know that design school graduates love black, gray and red. I know that when done well the use of gray and white together can be sophisticated, evocative, and mesmerizing. When white is used on a light gray to tell me how much my payment is this month it loses its effectiveness. I can't read it.

The same goes for gray text in any context:  bills, terms and conditions, proxy notices, and even PowerPoint presentations.  The point of text is to be readable communication. Gray text leads me to think you don't really want me to read the text.

6. Dear Valued Customer

You have my name and address. I pay you money. Couldn't you take the time to acknowledge me by name? Would you like me to send my check to you as "Valued Service Provider" or similar generic?

This is 2009 and in the new millennium anyone sending a customer any type of communication should be able to accomplish the most basic VDP and get the name in place.

Oops, this is getting a bit long. Come back next time for items 5 through 1 and then  we'll proceed down the path to Welcome Kit options!  

Don't forget to come say hello on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/PatMcGrew )! Or, here! Add a comment!

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Last time we were looking at the brand and how you style it in your communication. Is the logo current on all communication? Are the brand styles consistent across all media, including color and typeface implementation? Is it obvious to even the most casual of observers that all of your outbound communication comes from the same company?

Let's take a leap forward and say that you have that piece of the puzzle in place. What comes next? Look at the actual information provided in your statements, bills, and promotional mail. 

It's time to go back to those pieces you pulled together to do the brand audit and take a hard look at what you are telling your customers. Are you communicating effectively within the body of what you are sending? That means more than just moving data from a data base to the page or sliding it between fixed text.  The goal is to look at each page to see if, in the cold hard light of day, there is real communication going on.

Let's walk through the process over the next few posts, starting with a solicitation. Most companies do them in some form. Some do letters, others do brochures. They all have the same purpose; they want the recipient to move a business relationship. Given that requirement, how do yours stack up?  Have you made it clear what you are offering? Have you made it clear how they can respond to the call for action and bring their business to you? Is it personalized and targeted, or static? 

I mentioned my mail pile last time, and when I took a hard look at the pile of solicitations, many for mortgage refinancing, I was truly amazed. There were a few that had me as Mr. Pat McGrew. I'm not. I am Ms. Or Mrs. Or, even Miss. Not Mr. Many offered me refinancing, even in these tough times, but often they made me work to figure out how they wanted me to contact them. One failed to have a phone number on it anywhere, only a web address. Not even an email. One offered me a card from a coffee chain if I responded, but the offer expired three days before the postmark on the outside of the envelope.

The scariest ones were those that were "personalized" with what they believed to be my mortgage balance. Some went so far as to detail my property taxes and sometimes the insurance costs. Just because you have data doesn't mean you should use it! Especially when the fine print (I do mean fine print - 6pt.) says that the solicitation is not an offer and is just an example of the some offers they have made. 

Oddly, I had refinanced just before the market turmoil erupted, which didn't make me a good candidate in the first place!

The take-away is to make your offer unambiguous and make it easy for a customer to respond to your call for action. Take anything out of the offer that isn't relevant - you don't have to hit your target over the head with what you know about them. And, do some data cleansing to be sure that you are soliciting people for whom your offer is relevant.  

Remember that the point of all of this is that to grow your business communication is essential. Next time we'll proceed down the path to the welcome kit.  

Don't forget to come say hello on Twitter! Or, here! Add a comment!

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