Service Bureaus: Fulfilling Circulators' Needs

Circulation Management, Jan 1, 2004

Byline: EDITED BY KRISTINA JOUKHADAR

THE PRIMARY TRENDS in the fulfillment services sector involve automating as many of the procedures as possible. This saves time, staff, and storage space. It also means that publishers and their fulfillment houses need to keep in close touch about any major changes they have planned, so they can keep in synch with each other.

Front-end processing at the fulfillment house - trying to get the orders, payments, and survey data in faster - hasn't really changed much since last year, according to Jim Patterson, executive VP and COO at Palm Coast Data. "One of the key things we're working on is imaging more."

ELECTRONIC IMAGING OF ORDERS

One of the challenges fulfillment houses are facing is that publishers are getting more creative on their subscription forms - there are more combo offers, more invoice cards with email address captures on them. "There are a lot more options out there," says Patterson. "All these things can slow down our ability to image and process."

"We are all trying to find ways to process our pieces of mail most expeditiously, economically and efficiently as we can," says Lynn Reinicke, VP for business development and product fulfillment at Communications Data Services, Inc. "What we are trying to do is read (scan) everything on a document, whether hand written or not."

Reinicke says CDS has reached a point where it has a great deal of comfort in being able to "read" an address block - not the name yet - on an insert card, and match it against legitimate postal addresses."

ELECTRONIC BANKING FOR PAYMENTS

"One of the things we are looking at very strongly is project banking," says Glyn Standen, VP client services at Kable Fulfillment Services. Kable is investigating the use of electronic banking in conjunction with its banking partner. The reasons are obvious - storage, handling, speed - with the emphasis on speed, for getting money into the bank quickly for publishers.

Kable is now looking into the possibility of being able to image all the checks and send them to the bank electronically. This will not only save time, but also storage space - an expensive commodity these days. "We will have to retain those checks for a period of time, until we can verify that the bank has treated the deposit as we would like," says Standen. "The checks can then be destroyed, which will save us a huge amount of storage."

There are some restrictions and rules that must be followed in going to no-check banking. For instance, you have to tell your customer you are going to do it and get their approval, since they don't get their check back. It is another step that is required; and Standen says that as more time goes on there'll probably be more requirements. But Kable is hoping to have the electronic banking interface in place in the next year.

There is another benefit to the electronic storage of checks. On a customer service basis, if there is an issue about the check, the fulfillment house can retrieve that image and email it to the publisher or the customer. This gives a proof of purchase, for example, for someone who sent in an insert card, received an issue and a bill, and later claims they didn't sign up for a subscription.

THE AGENT EQUATION

Historically, fulfillment houses have received tapes or forms detailing new agent business. But the more common practice today is that a publisher will send out his list of expires to an agent, and will receive back electronic forms from the agent. "You have to maintain the agent's customer number," says Milton Wunsch, chairman and COO of RealTime Publication Services, Inc.

"For some agents, the customer number is an order number - the fulfillment house must maintain this." But there are other agent issues as well. With a continuous order agent - you have to deal with those differently.

These subscribers can't be renewed by the publisher, since they are on automatic renewal with the agent. They have to be processed differently in the fulfillment system to be sure you can always ID them, adds Wunsch.

There is a problem many publishers are having with agents who are getting a hold of their subscriber names and renewing them without permission. "We don't have the solution to this problem," says Reinicke, "but we'd like to help!"

Another problem publishers are having, more on the Internet than anywhere else, is with agents who are selling deeply discounted subscriptions to magazines and it's hard to figure out who is doing it. "We all built the capability for sub-agent programming into our systems about four years ago," says Reinicke. "One way to track where that order is coming from is through the use of that sub-agent number...if the clearing agent is providing it. And I think therein lies the problem."

Another warning comes from Kable: "Be careful of your list clearances. They (agents) are getting these names from list clearances that come in for, say, a major brokerage firm or some other well-known entity." Standen says that most publishers get a copy of their order in the mail somewhere, and they should check this.