New Ricoh service finds and addresses billions of dollars' worth of hidden costs and operational inefficiencies

MALVERN, Pa., May 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Ricoh USA, Inc. announced today RICOH Return Mail Services, an end-to-end solution that helps businesses better manage the more than 6 billion¹ pieces of undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail. These UAA mail pieces are not only plentiful, but they can also be costly. Return Mail Services offer businesses a repeatable, value-added handling process that reduces the burden of returned mail and provides accountability, control and transparency of the entire process. It is a hassle-free service to a previously manual, inefficient process involving collecting and storing UAA mail, sorting it according to sender, and physically delivering it to the correct department. With this service, not only are those steps automated, but businesses now have access to reporting and analytics that can help improve customer relationships, identify lost customers and enhance customer experience.

“In today’s business world, if you’re not focusing on customer experience, you can potentially lose them. And returned mail is a direct indicator that you’re running the risk of just that. Our new service helps businesses reconnect with these valuable customers,” said Bill Webb, Vice President, Services & Strategy Development, Ricoh USA, Inc. “Return Mail Services provides insights into why the piece is returned so adjustments can be made to reduce costs, boost efficiencies and stay connected to customers.”

According to the United States Postal Service (USPS), every year, millions of people move without alerting the post office. Moving without a forwarding address is a primary cause that contributes to nearly 6.2 billion mail pieces being UAA last year. Of those, more than 1 in 5 were returned to sender. At a time when producing and sending mail can cost organizations several dollars apiece, uncovering unnecessary costs is a must. Further, correcting and re-sending those – often time-sensitive – mail pieces manually can take days or even weeks, potentially harming customer relationships. Another avoidable cost is the risk of incurring fines if first class mail is unaccounted for in an audit.

Return Mail Services collect return mail, either via specially designated PO box or on-site pickup and can update the address with up to date proprietary databases. A proprietary process classifies return mail by department or document type, enabling 48-hour turnarounds to the person responsible for the returned mail piece, so they can quickly decide how to proceed. From there, users have the choice to update their customer relationship management (CRM) database with the customer’s new address and re-send at the push of a button, or stop mail and contact the customer via other channels.

Via a cloud-based portal, real-time transparency is accessible anywhere. Users can access key data, such as total scans, records to be remediated, number of movers, reason for return, the quality of optical character recognition (OCR) data, SLA performance and cost savings, among others. These insights across the entire process can help further optimize and provide insight into ROI, as well as aiding compliance with external audit requests.

For more information on Ricoh’s offerings, visit www.ricoh-usa.com or follow the company’s social media channels on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

¹ “Table 2.2: Final Disposition of Volume (Millions) of UAA Mail by Class of Mail / Rate Category – FY17.” United States Postal Service. https://postalpro.usps.com/undeliverable-addressed-uaa-mail/VolTables_PARS2017

| About Ricoh |

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2017, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,028 billion yen (approx. 18.2 billion USD).