Personalised client appreciation has become a forgotten art form for the most part. This is unfortunate really because saying thank you to clients and conveying your genuine and sincere gratitude to them for their loyalty to your brand is one of the easiest ways for you to build stronger relationships.

If you want your brand to stand out against your competitors and can’t practically compete on price or speed of service, finding other moments of opportunity can make all the difference. Since people, in general, tend to find more value in how you make them feel than what you do for them, a heartfelt thank you can go much further than you might realise.

Companies that focus on creating meaningful experiences for their clientele have been noted to retain more clients than companies that may be cheaper or more efficient but give off an air of indifference. A pleasant purchasing experience has been shown to encourage people to pay more for goods and services, improve how they see your company and also ramp up their willingness to share the good news with more potential clients.

Never underestimate the power of the human connection conveyed through a purposeful and personal touch when it comes to your interaction with your clients.

How to Say Thank You to Your Clients

Thanking clients doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to convey that there’s a real person behind the screen and behind the scenes.

Since it also may not be practical to thank every client for every purchase as your business grows. For this reason, you may want to consider separating your clients into groups to prioritise them, such as high-value clients, repeat clients, clients who offer support in the way of writing in or sharing your posts on social media, client birthdays or loyalty members.

You don’t need to spend a ton of money to create moments of delight. This is because clients will respond just as positively to your effort, care and creativity involved in you making the personalised connection with them.

Build a repeatable process. Whether you include a handwritten or printed thank you note with every item you send out or only occasionally include a show of gratitude, decide on a repeatable process, and make sure it’s consistent.

4 Of the Best Ways to Say Thank You to Your Clients

Handwritten notes: The lost art of handwritten cards or notes transcends the digital nature of our inboxes and creates something tangible and more meaningful.

Dreamware Tech, a computer and associated electronics company based in Durban, KZN is renowned for its quirky and upbeat personalised handwritten notes to its repeat clients. Extra valued clients also receive a slab of chocolate for added appreciation.

Package inserts: Unboxing has become an experience in itself for many clients as they look forward to holding their new product in their hands. One of the most popular packaging inserts to include to say thank you to clients is a personalised discount voucher. This is also something tangible to both show appreciation and encourages clients to make another purchase soon.

Free gifts or samples: Popping a small sample or gift in with an order is another great way to say thank you to clients. Samples most closely matching your client’s profile will not only delight them, but it will also expose them to a product they may not have tried before and may decide to purchase in the future.

Spotlight your clients:  Some, or all of your clients, depending on the industry, may rely on social media exposure to grow their audience or client base. So by showcasing your clients and publicly sharing on social media platforms how much you appreciate them you are not only thanking them, but your caring gesture will boost their credibility at the same time.

Get in touch with Mailmech today to help you to find the best solution to streamline your business to maintain client satisfaction and appreciation.  Call their helpful staff for advice and products on 011-789 1608 or visit www.mailmech.co.za

The jury is still out on viable paper alternatives. The debate on sustainable paper versus recycled paper still baffles many.

A ‘paper-free world’ is still the ultimate goal and data cloud storage has hugely changed the amount of paper used in today’s homes, offices, and education facilities. But is it enough?

Let’s explore some of the relevant data together as we move forward with awareness and practicality as our guiding principles.

Saving Trees Spearheads Paper Alternatives

In the back of your mind, you know that deforestation is not a good thing. Forests have an intricate ecosystem that supplies our planet with clean oxygen. Depleting forests has already contributed to global warming and will continue to do so as long as trees are being felled en-masse.

The bad news as far as paper is concerned is that 40% of commercially felled timber is allocated to the paper production industry. (Source) That is the bad news. The good news is that you can make a difference. Small steps count now more than ever.

Paper Alternatives For You

Recycling paper, while not exactly ‘tree-free’, does spare a few of the majestic oxygen-producing giants that should ideally remain firmly rooted in the soil from which they sprung. Using paper that is totally ‘tree-free’ refers to handmade papers, a.k.a sustainable paper.

Here are a few to bear in mind.

• Bamboo – possibly the best contender, bamboo grows well even n depleted soils at the rate of a meter a day, reaching maturity anywhere from 3 – 5 years.
• Agri-pulp – combines agricultural waste with post-consumer waste, such as recycled paper.
• Kenaf – related to cotton, paper made out of kenaf is whiter and uses less energy than needed to make tree pulp. Fast-growing (reaching 4 – 5.5 metres in less than 5 months) it yields more fibre than pine.
• Hemp – no stranger to many products, hemp makes great paper. Whereas timber has a 20 30 year cultivation rotation, hemp can be cultivated twice a year.

Why not start your own ‘tree-free’ initiative and find a way to incorporate sustainable paper alternatives in your end of the woods?

Contact us at MailMech when paper matters impact your world and we’ll work on alternatives and best practices with you.

If you have a list of favourite places to visit, chances are the Post Office is not one of them. Well, as a public service, post offices weren’t established for amusement.

When you describe a post office trip, you’re supposed to use adjectives like, “efficient, smart, organised”. You’re not supposed to say, “What a fun, delightful, and charming engagement.”

We know that COVID-19 has made quite an impact on many aspects of our lives. Including service delivery. Are you’re wondering if South African Post Offices will sink or swim? Here’s a quick overview of developments in this department.

The Post Office of Tomorrow

As a whole, the South African Post Office is in financial trouble. The organisation has fallen behind with many creditors. This includes property rentals, medical aid and pension fund contributions as well as SARS obligations (source).

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. South African Post Offices have a lot of beneficial news to share. For example, the drive to increase cashless payment systems. This means that you can pay your annual car licence fee by card. Such a plus!

As an organisation, the South African Post Office is on a mission to re-invent and re-establish its relevance in our modern economy. The Post Office of Tomorrow is a business model renewal strategy that’s being implemented throughout the country. You can read more about these changes in this press release.

Think of this business model renewal strategy as an action plan. The South African Post Office intends to face its substantial challenges. Yes, to proactively correct certain issues. For example, some measures aim to address deficiencies in service delivery standards.

Snail Mail

Does your business rely on things like franking machines and letter openers? The postal service might be slow, but your production mailing equipment doesn’t have to be.

Regardless of the goings-on at the South African Post Office, you can always count on the friendly team at Mailmech to pick up the phone. You can contact them here.

One of the most effective ways to make your office environmentally friendly is to strike where the workforce hurts the planet the most.

Any guesses on that? The Environmental Protection Agency has gone on record saying that office paper waste, copy paper, and notebooks specifically, make up the greater percentage of landfill waste!

Now that we have your attention, let’s make it simple. It is possible to save the environment by implementing a few salient office practices and making wiser choices when it comes to office equipment. The following pointers apply to all offices whether small or large, including your home office.

Smart Office Practices Toward An Environmentally Friendly Office

Not all offices are the same. However, a few common denominators and bad habits can be ditched and replaced by better choices. So let’s get to it.

1. Remove personal waste bins – this step alone makes everyone think twice before flinging a piece of paper into the trash.
2. Encourage paperless internal communication – email memos and agendas rather than printed materials or handouts at board meetings.
3. Organise external paperless billing – banks do it, so you can too. There is no excuse with so many online payment portals available, there are online payroll solutions too.
4. Lose Post-its & Notebooks – There are eco-friendly options. Google Keep notes works across all devices, including your phone. Google calendar and Google assistant are both great for reminders.

Smart Office Machinery For Your Environmentally Friendly Office

You should be proud of yourself if you have improved the above environmentally friendly aspects of your office. Having said that, it is understood that you can’t completely do without paper.

No matter what your unavoidable paper needs are, your next step in making your office more environmentally friendly has to do with your machinery and office equipment.

Let’s take a brief look at that now.

1. Printers & Copiers – understanding that everyone is painstakingly checking and double-checking their documents before heading for the printing or copy machine, encourage double-sided documents. Using both sides of the paper you have to use still falls into the environmentally friendly office plan.
2. Laminate Documents – invest in a laminating machine for documents that are regularly handled to prevent reprints and re-runs.
3. Shredding Machines – shredding paper makes it recyclable, so make sure you have one or more paper shredding machines available in your office space.

You will have won the battle if you’ve at least managed to diminish your paper trail. Pat yourselves on the back and throw an ‘Environmentally Friendly’ office party to thank everyone to encourage sticking to your new office practices.

Contact us at MailMech for your office equipment needs or speak to our experienced staff about how to get your office environmentally friendly as soon as possible.

If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the repetitive strain injury (RSI) a.k.a. OOS (Occupational Overuse Syndrome) could be the weak link in your office. No matter how modern your office may be, or how digitally upgraded you feel you are, there remain repetitive tasks, which end up plaguing you and your employees.

You know the story. Suddenly, staff members are spending more time off on doctor’s appointments than usual. Their work pace is noticeably slowing down.

If absenteeism is caused by occupational overuse syndrome or RSI, you are not helpless. The answer is simply to improve your office mechanisation.

Common Causes of Repetitive Strain Injury

The causes of this type of debilitating injury originate in the overuse of particular soft tissues, tendons, or muscles in the parts of the body used for repetitive tasks.

As pointed out by Dr. Ananya Mandal, MD, it is the ‘repetitive microscopic trauma that occurs due to strain on the muscles and joints. This repeated trauma at the microscopic level leads to…inflammation of the tendons and synovial sleeve or sheath covering the muscles and tendons.’

Tennis elbow comes to mind. Unless you have compulsory games at a court on your premises or your employees are spending their lunch hour on table tennis rather than eating, this is not likely an office-related injury. But you get the idea.

Repetitive Strain Injury Symptoms include:

• Burning and/or aches
• Weakness or a loss of sensation
• Pulsing sensation in the affected area
• A heightened awareness of the joint or muscle
• Tenderness or pain in the affected muscle or joint
• Tingling or throbbing sensations in an affected area

The Non-Medicinal Cure for Repetitive Strain Injury

Companies at risk include schools, colleges, universities, copy and printing shops. It’s not just doctors and medicines that cure RSI. There are often instances in the office where simple and unavoidable tasks, such as opening letters on a large scale and repetitively, folding and collating documents, result in employees who are already overworked.

Your office mechanization can assist immensely to reduce repetitive strain injury from ever rearing its painful head in your office. From address printers to folding machines, and letter openers you can greatly improve your output for your customers without overtaxing your staff. Something as innocuous as the acquisition of an office paper jogger will align papers reading them for the guillotine or for punching in seconds.

Whatever repetitive tasks you require at your business enterprise are what pose a risk of RSI in your office workers. Why wait for that to happen? Save on staff downtime with intelligent office mechanisation to keep your employees where you need them most – working in your office!

A quick look through our product range will assist you to make informed choices on how you can automate office systems in your work environment. This will enable you to save yourself valuable time and money lost to repetitive strain injury.

Contact us directly on 011 789-1608 or visit us at www.mailmech.co.za We’ll be happy to guide your decisions and point you in the right direction for practical solutions.

Even though data security has become a top priority and there are serious dangers to not properly disposing of confidential documents in a secure fashion, important information still ends up in the rubbish bin every day

The official enforcement of the POPI act at the end of July 2021 has also made it mandatory for companies to take extra care with confidential information and those found in breach of data security and confidential information safeguards can get into some very hot water with the authorities as well as opening themselves up to liability lawsuits.

The best way to get rid of confidential paper documents you no longer need and so that no information can be gathered from them by nefarious sources is to use a paper shredder. When it comes to data security, these handy machines should be an essential home and business appliance.

The Main Reasons You Should Be Shredding

Personal data pertains to any information that can help identify a person with details including names, location details, ID numbers and other contact details.

Identity Protection

As a business owner, it is vital that you take every precaution to protect your customers’ and employees’ identities. Keeping sensitive documents, such as time cards, payslips, health records, copies of photo IDs, and old security badges, secure is crucial. It is best not to throw them away in the trash, but to dispose of them in a secure manner. The less information that can be gathered about your customers and employees, the more secure their identity will be.

Account Security

Paper bank statements and any documents that include bank account numbers and any other personal or company banking information should always be shredded to prevent phishing, bank fraud and to keep your bank account as secure as possible.

Tax Returns

Many people tend to save their tax returns in case they get audited. Generally, though, after five years of returns, you are free to get rid of these. Since tax returns have confidential information included on them, they too should be shredded before disposal.

Space Saver

Beyond being vigilant about data security, do you really need all of those papers piling up in your office? Instead of letting paper take up all your coveted ‘real estate’ in your office, get to shredding those documents instead.

Choose Your Shredder

Mailmech specialises in Kobra Shredders. They are well-known and popular for their sleek design and capabilities of shredding anything from paper to tougher materials like credit cards and DVDs.  The Kobra 300-SS4 Shredder is a safe, reliable and robust security companion for any office, the features of which include:

• 24 hours continuous duty operation
• Auto start/stop through electronic eyes
• Auto-stop with a signal when the bin is full
• Shreds 32-34 sheets at a time, strip-cut
• Shreds credit cards, CDs, DVDs,
• 85-litre waste bin

Get in touch with Mail Mech today to order your preferred paper shredder and stay on top of data security.  Call their helpful staff for advice and products on 011-789 1608 or visit www.mailmech.co.za

Our post goes through a series of automated mail systems. From the time it’s posted, until it’s finally delivered, a letter will be processed by a variety of machines

Keep reading to learn about some of the systems currently in use. And the importance of counting and sorting machines.

Why It’s Important

Automated mail systems speed up sorting. They reduce post backlogs and delivery delays. Automated machinery postmarks and sorts tens of thousands of letters per hour. This is a process that goes faster than having a person do it manually.

Imagine it’s your job to stand in front of hundreds of pigeon holes. You have to read each name and address, then allocate every single letter correctly. This is what you do day after day. The work is slow, labour intensive, and boring. Moreover, it’s easy to make mistakes.

Sorting and counting machines are an integral part of the modern postal service. They also play an important role in banks and other financial institutions.

Automated Mail Systems

Let’s take a quick look at the series of automated mail systems that a letter goes through in today’s postal system.

1)   Acceptance

The acceptance phase happens when the postal service collects your letter. Whatever you’ve posted becomes the possession of the post office until it’s delivered.

2)   Facing and Cancelling

Mechanical sorters turn each letter so that it faces the right way, and check the letters for postage.

Cameras on the machines read the postage stamps and the hand-written addresses. The machine will then cancel the stamp and apply the postmark.

3)   Sorting and Distributing

The final automated process happens when the post is gathered for distribution. All the letters are sorted according to the order the postman or postwoman will need to deliver them in.

The postal carrier arrives, collects the bundle and heads out. This makes the physical delivery process much quicker.

Letters aren’t handled much between the acceptance and distribution phases. This is because everything in between is automated.

Automated mail systems reduce the work involved in processing individual letters. And, importantly, they decrease the risk of human error.

Production mailing equipment is a worthwhile investment. If you need a mailing and mechanisation specialist, contact Mailmech here.

Brand equity describes the reputation your brand generates and your business documents are among the significant contenders in creating your image. Communication between businesses as well as with customers often creates the first opportunity for you to be noticed.

You know for yourself what sort of equity brands such as Outsurance, Capitec, Castle, and Sasol have acquired for themselves. They deserve the position they have because they worked for it.

What can you do to improve your brand image?

The Role of Business Documents in Your Brand Imaging

Brand imaging is both purposeful and essential, and your business documents are an excellent brand touchpoint to maximise.

Just because most documentation today is digital, doesn’t mean you can get casual about your branding image. On the contrary, digital communication and documentation provide the ideal platform for making people stop and take note.

Your voice, image, culture and values are associated with the branding on your business documentation. That includes your media presence – your website is primary, but that needs to carry through to all your business documents and social media blogs.

Fonts and Colours in Your Business Documents

When people receive documentation from you, would you say they readily recognise you? While the world of fonts and colours has been analysed ad infinitum, if you choose to use the same colours as another recognizable brand, what are you doing to differentiate yourself?

The same can be said for fonts or logo designs for that matter. What do Ford, Facebook, Boeing and Mailing & Mechanization and Dell have in common? Their dominantly blue logo. What differentiates them? Their fonts, or lettering style.

Here are some pointers for the meaning of colours in branding for business documents:

• Blue – Reliable, calming, and intelligent
• Red – Exciting and passionate
• Yellow – Warm and youthful
• Orange – Energetic, inspiring and enthusiastic
• Green – Environment, money, tranquillity

In short, when someone accesses your business documents, do they see what you really want them to? Subliminally, people universally respond positively to colours, fonts and simplicity. Take the Nike ’swoosh’ logo as a case in point. No matter what colours they use, their branding is unmistakable.

Let your business documents leave people feeling confident in your brand without feeling bullied by overusing branding in your documentation.

Call our helpful staff at Mail Mech for advice and products on 011-789 1608 or visit www.mailmech.co.za

Every business is always looking to save time and money, as well as improving the services they offer their customers. If your business receives a lot of mail, then investing in a letter opener is the way to go.

While manually sorting mail may seem like a cheaper solution, in the long run, this will not be the case. Instead, you will find that you will quickly get your money’s worth out of a letter opener.

Improving Productivity

Easy to use and reliable, letter openers can help improve the productivity of your business. There is no longer any need to pre-sort mail, as envelopes of all different sizes can be handled and opened. Because they are simple to use, there is no longer any need for dedicated mail operators. Instead, staff can use their time to focus on other tasks which offer more productivity to the business.

Mail Management

By taking away the manual aspect of a mailroom, your systems become flexible and more versatile. Letter openers combine leading digital imaging with high-performance opening and extracting, and they also offer the technology to improve the archiving and processing of your mail.

There are also no restrictions or delays due to pre-sorting mail, and all envelope formats can be processed. This also means that important mail can get to its destination sooner. By improving the efficiency of your systems, you ensure that there are no delays in getting back to customer queries, improving your customer relations as well as your productivity

Safety of Valuables

Human error is always present in manual systems, and by using automated systems you ensure the safety of valuables and documentation. Many systems have anti-jamming devices that make short work of staples and paperclips, and paperwork is safer without any sharp edges.

If you have further questions about letter openers and what they can bring to your business, call Mailmech today at +27 11 207 891 608 or email info@mailmech.co.za for more information.