If you have ever asked yourself why use a mail forwarding service, then this is the article for you. We will cover all of the benefits that it can bring to your business.
Starting a business is a challenging endeavor. There are a lot of requirements that you will need to fulfill to ensure that it holds together. The biggest challenge is to create trust among your customers, so that they may invest in your products or services, and to maintain continuous interaction with them.
You need a mail forwarding service to provide you with that business mail address to boost your relationship with your customers. Before we dive into why the mail forwarding services are important for your business, let's find out more about the mailing service and how it works.
What is a mail forwarding service?
Mail forwarding is the process where you send mail to a recipient with a paying address. When you send the mail, it will first reach the mail forwarding faculty who will then send it to your intended recipient.
Many who use this service are either, business owners who need a flexible contact address to communicate with their customers, partners, or other important people in the business, or people who just want to keep things private. Some common users of these services are business travelers, college students, ex-pats, digital nomads, privacy guards, and home business owners.
Related: Mail forwarding FAQ
How does mail forwarding work?
For you to receive a mailing address, you must first have a physical, commercial address that you will use as your business address, which the mail forwarding service will provide. Instead of giving your home address to your investors, customers, or business partners, you will give the business address, so that you can receive your regular mail and packages.
When your mail arrives at the company's secure and spacious location, the company will notify you about the request to have the mail forwarded to you. A mail forwarding company will provide additional services such as scanning, shredding, archiving, or recycling. There is even an option to set filters to avoid junk mail so that you only receive the most important emails. Now, here is why you need to have a mail forwarding address.
Benefits of a mail forwarding service
Convenience for your mail and packages
A business that relies on shipment and delivery services requires the mail forwarding address to operate efficiently. When you start a business, you will be busy looking for investors and trying to keep everything in order in your business, so being tied down by delivery dates will slow down the operations of your firm.
Say you want your package to reach you through the USPS post office. You will need to drive there, which isn't exactly near. So you may opt to ask a relative, or a neighbor to pick it up for you. That may not be convenient, or secure. An even worse scenario is that the USPS may deliver the package to your doorstep, which means that for you to get the package, you have to go home later.
Inefficient services will put your packages, mail, and your identity at risk, especially if the mail you are expecting contains personal documents and bank statements.
Mail security
Your mail and packages, if not attended to, will be at the risk of theft. If your documents get compromised, and someone steals your identity, it will take weeks or even months to recover. Hiring help in such cases might be the obvious move, but it is certainly pricey.
For your packages, on the other hand, you will have to file a complaint with authorities and wait, or you may decide to purchase new ones, that is if you have not insured them. You, therefore, need a mail forwarding service to eliminate the possibilities of such security risks for both your business and personal information.
Related: Guide to a virtual mailbox
Fewer expenses and more time
Apart from costs that may result from security issues, postal mail is expensive to small businesses. You spend money for gas to travel to the post office, and then there are the postage stamp or shipping fees that you need to pay. You can use this money for your business instead.
In case you have a mailroom, you will need equipment like a scanner, shredder, printer, and many more, which are not cheap. With the mail forwarding service, you won't need a mail room. You can use this space for something else. The mail forwarding company will provide a digital mailbox where you can receive instant digital services like forwarding services, postal mail scanning, recycling, shredding, and archiving just by requesting. Now you have more valuable time, better cash flow, and more space.
Paperless environment
Instead of having clusters of unnecessary paperwork that you were planning to shred, or maybe you shredded them and did not do it properly, with one click of a button, all this can be taken care of by the mail forwarding service.
You need to have some orders so that you can access your important documents. You want to save time when you are attending to your customers, and having a large pile of paperwork that you have not attended to properly may complicate your business.
A paperless environment will help to eliminate situations like losing important documents that may have drastic consequences for your business. It also improves productivity by creating more space for you to work.
Faster response time from customers
Receiving your mail digitally means that you can access it anywhere, and at any time from your phone, and laptop. This means that you are always aware of important mail from your partners or customers, and you can handle the issues immediately.
Physical storage space
Mail forwarding services offer storage space for your packages and mail so that they do not take space in your house. If you have a large bulk of products and packages, you do not have to squeeze space in your house to accommodate them, the mail forwarding service will do this for you.
No need to change your address
With a mail forwarding service, you do not need to change your address, since the address you sign up with will be the one that you will always be used to receive your postage and mail. You can change offices or move to other locations without having to compromise communication between you and your customers. Also, when you receive packages, they will be sent to you wherever you are.
Mailboxes for your employees too
If you have a business where your employees need to receive mail, you can use this service for them too. With only one account, you can sign up multiple users. If you have remote employees, freelancers, and contractors, they will all receive mail through your business address. They will only need a password and username to log in to view their mail and control them.
Keep professional appearance
Most small businesses have offices in their homes or some small shared space. When you start a business, you want to project a different image. Having a specific address for your business gives it a strong and professional appearance to your customers. You want to build trust with your customer so that they feel that your business provides professional and reliable services.
Even if you are offering great discounts for your customers, they may choose to pay more for another similar business because of the added security. Instead of paying a lot of money for rented offices or virtual offices, the mail forwarding service will give you a real street address. This address will assure your customers that you are a real business and that you are ready to attend to them.
Keep your home private
You do not want everyone to know where you live as this may put you and your family at risk. Having mail sent to your office address allows you to separate your work and your home life.
Also, your important business mails may get cluttered with junk mail that you normally receive. In such cases, you may end up losing this information by destroying the important mails together with the junk ones.
Never miss important mail
Most small businesses tend to miss important letters and packages because they are never around during delivery. It is extremely frustrating to miss time-sensitive documents, and you may end up with extra costs, that are a burden to the operations of your business.
A mail forwarding service will allow you to always receive important mail and letters. Your packages are secure since there is always someone who will be there to receive them on your behalf when you are away.
Improving your customer experience
A great benefit of the mail forwarding service is that small businesses will build their integrity. Because your business has a registered address, you will be able to receive all the mails and letters that come your way. This is a great way of creating more customers.
Flexibility
The problem with starting a business is that you do not know what it may end up becoming. Maybe you may need to scale down a little to provide a better customer experience or expand to cover more areas. Sometimes you may end up becoming something totally different than you anticipated.
Conclusion
Mail forwarding is a great addition to a home-based businesses and also small businesses. With this service, your business will look more professional, thus creating confidence in your customers. You should first find out more about the mail forwarding company that you want to sign up with before you do so, to know whether or not they are genuine, and whether the services they provide are professional.
If you are looking for a mail forwarding company in Miami, Hallandale, Aventura or Hollywood then contact 221 Building to rent a mailbox or set up your mail forwarding service.