How Can Enhanced Fax Services Be Used to Reduce Costs and Improve Profitability?  

By William Dubovsky 

What Are Enhanced Fax Services?

The term ‘enhanced fax services’ refers to automated information fulfillment and delivery services using fax technology for other than the basic single fax transmission. Fax-on-demand and fax broadcasting are both examples of enhanced fax services. Companies, like ours, that are in the business of providing these enhanced fax services are called service bureaus.

Fax Broadcasting is like mass mailing, only by fax. In broadcast faxing, you can send the same document or set of documents to more that one fax location automatically.

A service bureau can maintain your fax lists and send out your important communications on a moments notice, with better accountability for receiving the information and for less than it would cost to mail, use overnight delivery, messenger, email, or in most cases, even less than faxing it yourself. A simple one page letter costs about $1.00 - $1.35 to send out (stationery, postage, printing, handling, labor, time, etc.) and is not always read or even opened. Faxes are  faster and less expensive than mail, arrive "already opened," are usually read immediately and command more attention than letters or even email.

How it works. After your account and fax distribution lists are set up in the service bureau’s fax server (computer), all you do is fax the information you want broadcast with a special cover letter that tells which list(s) of recipients to send to. The service bureau then sends you a confirmation of what is being faxed. After the faxes have been sent, you receive a log of who received the fax and who didn’t, so you can follow-up. At the end of the month you receive an invoice based upon the number of faxes successfully delivered. (Wouldn't it be great to not pay for any undeliverable mail?)

The Law. There are FCC and TCPA rules that affect what is faxed by whom to whom. Fax is different from direct mail in that you are tying up a customer’s fax and using their paper. You don’t want to aggravate a recipient to the point where they will accuse you of harassment. A notice should always be printed on the document that provides a means for having their number removed from your list. By including a notice and contact number, you have covered yourself in areas that many not strictly be in compliance the TCPA.

Phone List Management. Updating, deleting duplicates and list management are important for effectiveness and efficiency. All dynamic lists should be updated at least monthly.

Your Organization can Profit from Faxed Newsletter/Subscriptions: local business news, special interest news, sports news, legal updates, product updates. Event calendars and information, travel specials and news, stock market information. A newsletter or information bulletin is not usually considered an advertisement and therefore is generally outside the scope of the federal law on unsolicited faxes.

Information should be unique, unavailable anywhere else, the most up-to-date, or the most concise source of information in order to draw paid subscribers. The more valuable the information is to the recipients the greater chance you will have of gaining them as paid subscribers. In most cases, faxed newsletters should be not longer than two pages. Over four pages, mail becomes an attractive alternative.

Business content should affect the subscriber’s "bottom-line."

• Keeping ahead of the competition

• Improving customer service

• Reducing costs

General Applications: reports, info/technical specification sheets, price lists, directions, new product announcements, weekly memo for the boss, updated information, membership, client, customer, patient updates and meeting/event notification, special events, sales, limited time opportunities.

Banks/Financial, Brokers, Investment Advisors: changing CD rates, mortgage rates, investment yields, investing information, application forms, bad check alert, calendar of seminars and events. Invitations to special seminars and other educational events.

Insurance Agencies, Mortgage & Leasing Companies: changing rates with appropriate application forms. Invitations to special seminars and other educational events.

Manufacturers/Distributors: data sheets, safety sheets, product descriptions, applications, policies.

Schools, Clubs and Organizations: monthly calendar of events, membership listings, alumni newsletter, athletic scores and schedules, team rosters, events, news.

Real Estate: photo and MLS listings, benefit sheets of home/property, apartment rental rates, floorplans, detailed commercial leasing information.

Builders: floor plans and customization options.

Bookstores/Libraries: best seller lists, storytelling times, business hours, order forms, additional info on books, tapes, CD’s, etc.

Video/Music Stores: new releases, hot rentals, top sellers, trivia contests, specials, games, coupons.

Travel agencies: rates, contests, travel advisories, tips.

Florists: pricing and ordering information, decorating tips, plant care tips, gift-giving tips.

Exterminating/Elimination Companies: safety information, tips, contracts, warnings.

MLM - Network Marketing: weekly sales tip sheet, price lists, motivational information.

Nursing Homes and Health Care Facilities: make feeder institutions aware of capabilities and vacancies.

Restaurants/Catering: menus, daily specials, employment applications, meal deliveries, drink specials, parties, special evens, holiday functions, entertainment schedules, "lunch club cards," "2 for 1" coupon offers, weekly newsletter.

Professionals: CPAs, medical, legal, architectural, advertising, consulting, engineering, environmental, surveying, software, computing, telecom, etc. information sheets and special reports. "How to..." and "What to look for in..." information pieces.

Publishing: fax newsletters to clients and prospects.

Security: issues, warnings.

Your Benefits: You don’t tie up your own phone lines from incoming faxes, no need to purchase additional phone lines or new/additional equipment, no need to update or maintain hardware/software and no additional manpower dependency or training.

How to get started. Your first step is to determine which fax applications will increase revenues, customer contact, customer service and decrease overall expenses. You need to evaluate what can best be automated and fulfilled by fax rather than by mail or a live operator.

With fax-on-demand, the caller, who is seeking information requests a document or set of documents be faxed to any fax machine at their convenience, usually within seconds. By using a touch-tone phone keypad to respond to voice prompts for information, these requests are handled automatically with no human intervention. Fax-on-demand works like a recorded-message information system only instead of hearing a message, the caller receives a fax.

Many businesses do not think of using fax-on-demand and as a marketing tool. Some of the main reasons for using this technology to enhance sales is:

• Instant response to inquires
• Sense of urgency
• Objections to talking with salesperson
• Convenience - Automated Information Fulfillment & Delivery

Picture this. It’s 9:00 p.m. Saturday night and the hardworking executive is finally able to read your marketing piece, catalog or advertisement. His/her interest is high. Do you make them wait until Monday to call for more information? Will they even remember to call you on Monday? What if you’re out of the office? Do they have to wait until Tuesday? Even when they get you on the phone, do they have to wait for you to get the literature in an envelope, address it, apply postage, and put it in the (snail) mail? What if you publish a number in the ad for them to call and fax information to themselves immediately (worst case, it will be waiting on their desk Monday morning)? You get a report telling you who called for information and you can follow-up Monday morning. Who is more likely to still be as interested as when they first read your ad or marketing material?

Fax still has an air of urgency about it. If someone has a fax and a piece of direct mail sitting on their desk, which one do you think they will look at first? Which one has a better chance of even getting to a decision-maker’s desk?

Some people are hesitant to call a salesperson in response to an ad. They may feel intimidated. If they know that they will be faxing the information to themselves they are a lot less threatened. Then, when you do follow-up they feel more in control of the situation because they already know something about the product or service being sold.

Another way fax-on-demand can be used to provide a value to your enterprise is as a method of responding to your customers’ need for information. This could be in area of customer relations or technical support. Many companies find that they are answering the same questions over and over again. Using fax-on-demand to respond to some of these FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) could be a tremendous boost to customer satisfaction and an enormous manpower savings factor. This could work in several ways.

A customer could call the fax number directly and follow the prompts to have a particular fax sent to them. This is the most common way of using fax-on-demand. Alternatively, a customer could call your customer service or technical support department. After identifying a solution, the representative takes a fax number and promises the requested information within a specified period of time (perhaps an hour). The representative then places a single call to your fax-on-demand line and requests the appropriate faxes be sent as promised. This keeps your employees from spending unnecessary time searching for documents and standing in line at a fax machine. It is also a good way to manage and store documents for faxing.

Besides storing documents, a service bureau allows a client to store their own documents at their convenience by a process called remote insert (by faxing directly to the system). This is an excellent option for people who have constantly changing data, such as mortgage brokers, who need to update information immediately and do not have the luxury of waiting for the fax service to manage the document for them. It also gives clients a greater feeling of ownership and responsibility for the materials they are providing their customers.

Some systems allow for inbound and/or outbound international access. By design, only fax broadcast is available to international numbers.

Demand faxing to international numbers is risky. No one will want to relinquish control of faxing capabilities for possible indiscriminate use of demand faxing to international numbers.

Due to advances in fax technology, we discourage the use of cover pages for fax broadcasts. Cover pages add to the time and expense of each fax. The data required on a fax cover page can be placed in the top header of each page of the fax at no additional charge and does not affect the speed of faxing.

Restricted access is a capability that allows only previously identified fax numbers to receive a document set. This is a form of a subscription list. If a demand fax request comes in to be sent to a number that is not on the subscription list, then the fax will not be sent. This is a good way to handle newsletters for which there is a paid subscription or in-house documents available only to associates or employees.

Two call systems are generally used, especially for marketing purposes, because they capture the fax number of the interested party for follow-up and lead generation purposes. The inbound calls generally take less than a minute, thus freeing up the line more quickly, with outbound fax lines handling the more time-consuming transmission of the faxes

Some inexpensive personal computer systems utilize one-call access. One call access requires the caller to call from a handset on a fax machine an hit the start button to receive the fax immediately during the same call. The advantage is that the caller pays any long distance tolls (assuming the inbound number is not an 800/888 toll-free number). The disadvantage is that there is usually not a mechanism for capturing the fax and/or phone numbers. It also ties up the inbound number while the fax is being sent. Additionally, this method forces the requester to be physically present at a fax machine when requesting information. You will lose many opportunities to pickup leads as your prospect will usually not be at a fax machine when reading your advertisement.

Good reporting is an important part of a fax bureau. Fax-on-demand systems will produce a listing of all requests for a client’s documents. These reports include the requester’s fax number, providing the client with lead generation and follow-up information.

With fax broadcasting, it’s important to see which faxes were successfully delivered and which weren’t in order to update customer/prospect files and to follow-up by phone if necessary.

In a March, 1995 article in Computer Telephony magazine, the fax server and fax-on-demand industry had grown to well over $50 million in sales, with an annual growth of 50%. Fax broadcasting is also growing at a similar rate. Factors driving this growth rate are:

• A desire for information instantly and 7 day/24 hour availability.

• Faxing saves time and money over mailing.

• Innovation - A company’s edge over the competition is often measured by its responsiveness and use of enabling technology

As technology has advanced the field, the cost of fax equipment has dropped dramatically. Most businesses and many homes now have their own fax machine on premises – many times more people have faxes than computers or access to the Internet. At this writing, an estimated 80% of all enhanced fax applications are handled by service bureaus, and that figure is growing.

• Reduced Costs

• No Special In-house Expertise Required

• Overall Convenience

• Consistent Quality of Transmissions

• Economies of Scale

• Off-site Service & Data Back Up

A significant reason for companies to contract with service bureaus deals with the relative cost of equipment, telecommunication lines and services, software, accountability and manpower vs. the fee that a service bureau would charge. This would usually represent a capital outlay of several thousand dollars. Unless a company is doing a great deal of demand and broadcast faxing, it is not advantageous for them to make the investment in a system to do this kind of work.

Larger companies often contract with service bureaus until they are convinced that it is worthwhile to make the investment in an in-house system. Our firm is glad to work with larger organizations because we can:

• Get their business during the interim period.

• Act as their consultant when they do decide to put in an in-house system.

• Handle any overflow that they may have in the future.

• Be an emergency back-up in case of system failure.

• Gain good will, good word of mouth advertising and a good reference as we prospect for new clients.

• No Special In-house Expertise Required

A major concern for businesses is to attract and keep good technical people to learn and be accountable for office technology. By using a service bureau, they eliminate the expense of training and having someone to operate, maintain, back up and be responsible for the system.

Most successful companies like to focus on what they do best to make money. While they have copying capabilities, it makes more sense for them to send larger jobs out to be done by a printer of copy center. Once they know where they can send their larger fax jobs, they are usually happy to turn these over to a service bureau also.

There is a point at which a company might have enough usage to cost-justify buying their own fax on demand system. But when faced with the administrative duties required, they may still opt for using a service, just to know that "someone is minding the store."

Another reason for using a faxing service bureau is that most companies will prefer to keep their fax machines open for receiving faxes and sending immediate faxes during working hours. Clients have told us that it saves them hours of searching for a document and then standing at a fax machine, sometimes waiting in line, making sure it was successfully sent.

Now with fax-on-demand, they simply get a caller’s fax number, and use the service themselves to send the fax out, all within a matter of a minute or less.

And if the need to send the same fax out to many people, there comes a point when the could spend their entire day at the fax machine, dialing each number, and feeding the same set of documents through for each one.

Even if our clients have their own broadcast capabilities, they often want to use us as a back up or to handle rushes and overflows. They have piece of mind that there is an alternative if anything happens to their in-house system.

Once a document is stored in the system, your customers or prospects will always receive a brand new, "fresh" copy each time it’s requested.

If you are doing a large volume of long distance faxing you may qualify for long distance volume discounts. Many times a service bureau can send long distance faxes for less than the phone call alone would cost an individual company.

• Off-Site Service & Data Back Up

A service bureau can be responsible for updating and maintaining your database. In case of an office emergency, your data is safely stored off-site.

By using voice broadcast services, your voice message can be sent to many customers, clients or prospects, all over the country, in a short period of time. This service is also useful to get out announcements or to leave voicemails for individuals after normal business hours.

Advertising Agencies: a new outlet for their clients’ advertising messages.

Executive Recruiters: voice mail messages and alerts can be delivered to busy professionals at off-hours so as not to tie up their phone during  business hours. Hundreds or thousands of voicemails can be sent each night and retrieved by the professional at his or her leisure.

Fundraising: Churches, special interest groups, clubs, political organizations.

Surveys, Polling and Market Research: used to measure public opinion or consumer preferences. Useful for political candidates during election time.

Grand Opening Announcements: deliver personalized messages to thousands of people in a selected market.

Special Promotions: retailers can send messages announcing special sale days and offer discounts directly to the people they most want to reach, especially those with easy access to the retailer’s place of business.

Notifications: offer clients a fast, economical way to notify a selected audience concerning subjects like meetings, deliveries, the arrival of orders and appointments.

Bill Collection: diplomatic, tasteful messages can help with bill collections and help clients collect past due accounts that hurt cash flow.

General Advertising: promote business image and increase visibility toward people in the local area.

The arguments for business faxing using  a service bureau are logical, convincing and compelling. Reader response to fax documents is estimated to be 21% higher than mailed documents and, unlike direct mail, hand-delivered courier mail and e-mail, fax documents arrive pre-opened and are in the hands of targeted recipients in minutes from the time they are sent. A business can deliver high-impact documents to thousands of destination almost immediately by faxing or voice mail. And finally, fax broadcasting is an especially attractive solution because of the extremely low cost-per-touch - there is no printing costs, no labor, or materials.