Sending letters is an expensive, laborious and slow way to communicate with your audience. The new secure document download tool for Mobile Journeys will help you connect in a digital, mobile-first way which will, in turn, help your business free up resources and have happier customers.
Communicating with customers via post is considered an old-fashioned way of engaging, with a third of consumers feeling that letters are now unnecessary (source). It’s certainly more expensive and slower than its more modern, digital counterparts.
There are also environmental issues. Consider how many trees are felled to create paper and envelopes and how much of a carbon footprint is left by the vehicles delivering the letters.
However, paper letters still represent the best way to supply formal communications like notifications and contracts for many businesses. This is because letters are perceived by some consumers – particularly older and lower income groups – to be a more secure and official communication channel than a digital alternative like SMS.
So is there a way of combining the formal feel of a printed document with the lower cost, speed of delivery, and ease of use benefits that come with using a modern, mobile-focused channel?
Introducing Secure Document Download
Secure Document Download is a new tool for our Mobile Journeys mobile web app, which removes the sender’s requirement to send expensive and slow paper-based communications while maintaining the confidentiality and formality of a letter.
The new tool allows an end-user to securely download a PDF document within a mobile web app that doesn’t require installation.
Delivering documents using Secure Document Download offers significant benefits to the sender. First of all, the documents reach the intended recipient much faster. The end-user can access the mobile web app as soon as they receive the link, usually via SMS, and then they can download the document directly to their device at a convenient time.
Compared to a postal delivery which can take anywhere between 1 and 3 days, supplying documents via a Mobile Journeys Secure Document Download is done almost instantly. This will help speed up practically any customer interaction and leave the sender with happier customers.
The cost-saving benefits are also significant for document senders. The cost to send personalised letters to an audience of 10,000 customers could be around £10,000 (when we account for stationary, administrative, and postage costs). The cost of delivering documents to the same audience with Mobile Journey’s secure document download feature would be significantly less. You replace the expensive parts of the process with the quicker, more efficient, and less costly Mobile Journey-based solution.
How does it work?
The process of delivering documents through a Mobile Journey is a simple one. To start with, businesses wishing to send documents will provide Esendex with a document template. Typically this will be a letter, contract, policy summary, or any other kind of formal document. This will be accompanied by a set of data that will populate the document’s variable parts (e.g. customer name, address, renewal price, appointment date, etc). This data can be captured before the document download stage within the Mobile Journey itself if required.
The end customers are then sent a link to a Mobile Journey, contained within an SMS, Email, or web link. When the customer reaches the document download stage of the Mobile Journey (after first verifying their identity by answering some security questions within the Mobile Journey), a PDF document is created by combining the sender’s original template and the variable details specific to that customer. The new PDF document is now available for download on their device.
Who can use the Secure Document Download feature?
The document download feature is available to any business that wishes to send formal documents containing personal information cost-effectively and securely.
Insurance Companies
Insurance companies can quickly compile and deliver personalised policies without sending reams of expensive paper documents.
Healthcare
Healthcare providers can securely deliver test results directly to patients’ mobile devices, ensuring that critical information reaches anxious patients in the soonest possible time.
Local Governments
Local governments sending annual council tax statements to residents can save valuable budgetary spending by switching from paper communications to a digital Mobile Journey approach.
Debt Collection Agencies
Debt collection agencies can quickly and easily verify their customer’s identity, before submitting sensitive financial documentation.
Estate Agents
Real-estate agencies can issue their buyers and sellers important property contract documentation much faster than postal mail.
How can we start sending more secure, downloadable documents?
If you’re interested to know more about how Mobile Journeys can be used to deliver your letters and documents in a faster, more cost-effective way, and how Esendex can make the process work more effectively for you, please get in contact with our team today on 0345 356 5758 or email us at [email protected].
