How Leveraging the Right Mailroom Equipment Can Reduce Corporate Costs

With skyrocketing demand for labor and concurrent wage increases, lowering operating costs with the right mailroom equipment is paramount.

The Reality of Hybrid Work Facing Mailrooms

According to a recent Glassdoor survey, 35% of workers are hesitant to return to the office due to COVID concerns¹. In San Francisco and New York City, fewer than 21% of employees are back in the office. And a staggering 75% of employees want to continue to work flexibly². As a result, hybrid work is the next normal; unraveling the confusion of who is in the office when has and will continue to take a hefty toll on mailroom resources.

Here are three strategies for cost reduction while also ensuring improved efficiency for your mailroom:

1. Meter Your Mail

Metering your mail should be the first step to improving efficiencies in your mailroom operations and lowering mailing costs. Postage meter customers save 9% on every first-class letter and up to 40% on priority mail. Of course, metering is also cheaper than the manual process of stamping by hand when it comes to labor costs.

2. Institute a “Go Paperless” Initiative

Often overlooked at the office is the option to go paperless. It’s almost as if consumers cozied up to the concept for their own bills, but not for business. When executed company-wide, implementing the right technology and mailing equipment can generate enormous bottom-line savings.

3. Embrace a Corporate Campus Hub Delivery Model

Instead of using a manual process of floor-to-floor and door-to-door delivery for mail and packages (one that comes with considerable operational costs), consider implementing a Campus Hub™ delivery model.

With a Campus Hub model, mail and packages are delivered to a centralized set of lockers instead of a mailroom – a significant process improvement both in terms of labor and business expense. Plus, with smart lockers, employees can retrieve their deliveries at their convenience throughout the workday or when they’re next in the office. (With outdoor lockers, of course, asset retrieval is available 24/7.)

The Campus Hub is a solution that marries the benefits of Parcel Pending by Quadient’s industry-leading smart locker hardware with Quadient’s Web Tracking System (WTS) or other asset tracking software to provide complete visibility into where any current assets are at any time once they are delivered into the system.

When an item is delivered for them, recipients are automatically notified by email, text, or mobile app alert. This notification includes a unique access code that they can manually enter or a barcode they can scan for contact-free access to their asset.

Another key benefit of embracing the Campus Hub solution is that the software automatically sends reminders if packages and goods haven’t been retrieved. These stale package alerts work for both the recipient and mailroom employees.

Beyond Mail & Packages: Transforming Lockers into Distribution Centers

Whereas most smart lockers were originally installed to assist in secure package delivery and retrieval, today they’re being deployed in ways beyond mail and packages. Smart lockers, such as those used for Parcel Pending’s Campus Hub, can now act as a central distribution system for asset transfer – including ID materials, parking passes, documents, and more. Ingeniously, they also work to return items too, such as rental equipment, laptops, or documents.

David Janes, Channel Manager, Commercial Parcel Locker Solutions at Parcel Pending by Quadient, predicts parcel lockers will provide the solution for distributing all kinds of things at work, giving users the ability to avoid mailroom lines and face-to-face contact, while also providing security and peace of mind. He refers to this transformation as a Campus Hub, “an exchange point for different items, outside of mail and packages.”

With hybrid models becoming a fixture in today’s working culture, storing personal effects becomes an issue – particularly when there are no longer dedicated decks or cubicles for each employee. As Jeffrey Gay, an architect and designer for MOI explains: “Everyone wants to control their personal effects. With the open office colliding with the hybrid workplace, you don’t always know who is in the space. You want to know that your things are safely locked away”³.

The Campus Hub as a Game Changer for Improved Efficiency

Manual mailroom management systems are quickly becoming inefficient. Incoming mail and packages, for instance, are typically delivered to a mail services center for sorting by department or by employee. Then, every delivery is made manually – driving up time and operational costs. Even worse, the only communication vehicle about the arrival of a package to an employee was tracking provided by the company they ordered from. This was a process that worked well when employees were in the office five days a week but is tricky to adapt for a hybrid or remote workforce.

Campus Hub, on the other hand, is a self-service model that allows for automatic alerts upon asset delivery into the locker system, asset retrieval in less than 30 seconds, and built-in tracking for visibility into when assets are retrieved. It also easily allows for mail distribution on the same platform.

Reaping the Cost Savings with Campus Hub

Installing a Campus Hub can significantly reduce operating costs while optimizing the overall customer experience. Some Parcel Pending clients, for example, have shaved off as many as 24 hours per week in labor costs with their commercial locker solution! Further, package delivery time becomes more efficient with delivery time lowered up to 78%. Another unexpected cost saving comes in the form of postage costs: mailroom staff no longer need to ship packages to local employees as they can now be securely delivered to the lockers and stored until the employee can come retrieve the asset.

Custom Wraps, 24/7 Support, Scalable & More

Lockers are available in customizable sizes and configurations that can easily grow to meet changing company needs or an expanding employee base. Logos, color wraps, and specialized designs are also available to help ensure consistent company branding or meet your building’s aesthetic.

Plus, with an U.S.-based customer service team, Parcel Pending is ready to answer questions from both mailroom staff and parcel recipients on a 24/7/365 basis.

For information about how a Campus Hub can help with cost reduction and improved efficiency, contact Parcel Pending by Quadient’s customer service team today.

Sources:

1. Smith, Ray A. & Thomas, Patrick. The Wall Street Journal. As Delta Variant Rages, More Workers Are on Edge About Return to the Office. (2021, August 2). https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-delta-variant-rages-more-workers-are-on-edge-about-return-to-the-office-11627909200.
2. Fleming, Sean. World Economic Forum. Working flexibly is now the new normal for employees: Poll. (2020, July 8). https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/working-flexibly-new-normal-poll/.
3. Proctor, Carolyn M. Washington Business Journal. Post-Covid offices are bringing in welcome design changes. (2021, July 16). https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2021/07/16/post-covid-office-design-changes.html.