The U.S. Post Office is pushing ahead with over $3 billion in budget cuts, and plans to close almost 50% of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country.
They are also planning to shut 3,700 local post offices.
The immediate impact is that mail will take more time to deliver - and that same-day delivery of first-class mail will disappear.
Periodicals and third-class mail will also take longer to arrive.
What are the implications for your direct mail? I see three areas you may want to think about.
First, and most obviously, you may want to add 3-5 days to any deadline you have on your offers. If you are using a specific date - e.g. Respond by February 8th - you may want to extend that.
Second, you may want to move more of your mail to first-class. If all direct mail takes longer to receive, you may want to minimize that delay. Plus we know that sending mail first-class (with live stamps) almost always improves response.
Third, if you haven’t already, you may want to take a longer look at alternatives to direct mail.
Jim Corridore, industry analyst, has this to say about the U.S.P.S. "Over time, to the extent the customer service experience gets worse, it will only increase the shift away from mail to alternatives. There's almost nothing you can't do online that you can do by mail."
The USPS is also waiting for Congress to approve their plans to end Saturday delivery; and raise stamp prices.
I’ve always been a big fan of the Post Office - but they are projecting a $14 billion loss in 2012, and they may even be heading for bankruptcy.
