Running a business presents more challenges than most people can keep up with. Between managing people, handling their problems, and trying to keep the company afloat, things can get overwhelming. The main roadblock that any business faces at some point, though, has to do with finances. Making money is any company’s main goal, because you have bills and salaries to pay, and you obviously want to make some profits. Yet, making money has not proven that difficult if you do all the right things; it’s saving it that presents a challenge. One of the best ways to do that is by using postage meters in your company.
What Is a Postage Meter?
Also known as a franking machine, a postage meter is one of the most valuable business assets, especially for companies that have a lot of outgoing mail. It is used to streamline the mailing process and make it more efficient, reducing costs and increasing processing capacity at the same time. It can save your business a lot of money and time, as we will thoroughly explain later on.
How Do Postage Meters Work?
Before franking machines, if a company wanted to send mail or packages, they would spend long hours manually applying stamps to each package that needs to be sent. After that, someone had to take those packages to the post office. It was quite a time-consuming process and a waste of resources. Then, postage meters were invented, and these quality machines made the whole process a lot more efficient and simple. Those machines print the postage directly on the mail or packages, and your mail is good to go. As a result, you get metered mail with all the necessary information city, state, date, and ZIP code on all your outgoing packages at a fraction of the processing time, which makes it perfect for processing large amounts of mail. Sometimes you have to use a Pincode as well.
Benefits of Using Postage Meters
Cost Reduction
Before postage meters, companies would often miscalculate the weight of the mail, usually giving an estimate that can be larger than the actual number. As a result, they pay more in shipping costs. Franking machines eliminate that problem and save you that additional cost, as they allow you to accurately weigh the email and pay just the right amount, nothing more. Franked mail also saves you a lot of money from another, more important angle. You see, post offices offer lower rates for metered mail, because it is much easier to process and handle, so they extend significant discounts to encourage companies to start using this type of mail. As a result, you can save up to 30% on postage using those machines, which can add up to quite a lot in the long run.
Improved Productivity
Dealing with stamps was always a mundane task that nobody liked doing. To manually apply them to each outgoing package is as boring as it is time-consuming, and it leaves much room for error because people are bored and/or overworked. Postage meters spare you that kind of hassle as the process is much more efficient and requires less manpower. You could have just one person handle the machine and they would be able to process all your mail. That way, your people can focus on more pressing matters, which results in significantly increased productivity.
No Trips To The Post Office
This is arguably one of the most important benefits of using postage meters. Your employees won’t have to make any more trips to the post office, which is quite a waste of time since there are always long lines and you have to waste hours to get stamps. More importantly, having a franking machine at the office gives you significant flexibility as it allows you to send mail any time of day. This is unlike the case with stamps, since running out of those at night means you’ll have to wait until the following day because the post office would be closed at that time.
More Control
Postage meters give you significant control over the entire mailing process in your company. The machines cannot be operated by just anyone; they have a password and a system that you could have operated by a single person if you want. You will also be able to track postage costs since the meters deduct them from a pre-funded account.
At the end of the day, postage meters are a valuable business asset because they help your company save a lot of money in the long run. More importantly, they streamline the entire mailing process for your business, saving you a significant amount of time and allowing you to direct your resources into more urgent and important matters.