Business Junk Mail Reduction Project

Mentor Graphics

Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce

City of Morgan Hill

Santa Cruz County

City of Omaha

Mentor's mailroom staff estimates that more than 15 percent of the mail received daily (by weight) is undeliverable, duplicative, or unsolicited. A temporary employee was hired to work with the mailroom manager. Bulk-rate mail that the mailroom manager determined was either undeliverable or unwanted was given to the temporary employee, who used toll-free and local phone calls, postage-paid return envelopes, faxes, and special pre-printed letters to try to reduce unwanted mailings. Generally, multiple mailings from the same company could be canceled with one letter.

For example, in the first four weeks, employees processed 2,599 pieces of unwanted bulk-rate mail, weighing 568 pounds. On average, one phone call, fax, or letter to the sending company could be used to delete 4.6 Mentor Graphics names and addresses. Mentor Graphics also found that 30 percent of the unwanted mail provided a postage-paid return envelope. Undeliverable first-class mailings were stamped "return to sender" and given back to the mail carrier. In the first three months, Mentor Graphics was able to reduce the amount of undeliverable mail by approximately 15 percent. While not measured, it is expected that the longer-term results were higher, as direct marketers can take several months to respond to these requests.

Source: David Allaway, Harding Lawson Associates, Portland, OR, November, 1999. E-mail: dallaway@harding.com 

How Mentor Graphics cleaned up its own mailing lists to make its outgoing direct mail less wasteful

The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce kicked off its program to reduce unwanted direct mail with an announcement at an all-staff meeting in April, 1998. They use a posterboard display to highlight examples of unwanted direct mail pieces. A basket for collecting mailings that staff members do not want to receive is located right in front of the posterboard, near the mail slots for each department.

Staff members are asked to cross out the existing contact information and write "delete," or to make corrections, and then place the letter in the basket. A Chamber receptionist sends a pre-printed postcard to the mailer with a check by one of these statements: "Please delete the following from your mailing list" or "Keep sending mailing, but change name to _____." Initial staff participation was excellent. About 175 postcards were sent in the first four months.

In a July, 1999, interview with the receptionists, however, it was discovered that the number of postcards being sent had dropped to roughly five per week. One reason for this decline is that the receptionists have been screening incoming mail themselves and pulling out mailings that they know should be eliminated or need to have the recipient's name changed. The receptionists also believe that the reduced staff participation is due, at least in part, to a lack of program promotion.

As for results, both receptionists (who help distribute mail) reported a definite reduction in the number of mailings sent to an incorrect employee where a postcard had been sent. One of the receptionists also believes that there has been a slight reduction in the number of unwanted mailings, while the other receptionist is uncertain. A reminder e-mail about the program was sent to the entire Chamber staff in July, 1999. The e-mail also asked for comments. Several staff members responded that they definitely noticed that the program has reduced their unwanted mail.

Based on these positive results, the Chamber has decided to continue the program, with a few changes. To improve employee awareness of the program, the Chamber will occasionally remind staff about it at monthly all-staff meetings. The Chamber will also begin mentioning this service in the new employee orientation.

Many of the gains that have been made are, unfortunately, minimized by the current nature of the direct mail industry. Presently, it is too easy for someone to have their name sold, rented, traded, or shared and, consequently, be put on new mailing lists. To help combat this practice, the Chamber will add a check box to the postcard that states, "Please do not share my name with other organizations." This box will be regularly checked by the receptionists unless they receive a request otherwise. Not only is the goal to stop the spread of one's name, but it is also hoped that this addition to the postcard will encourage the mailer to set up a master in-house suppression list. Such a list can be used to cross-check any new mailing lists that are acquired, to avoid sending mailings to those who no longer want information from that organization.

Source: Matt Fikejs of the Chamber, July, 1999. He can be reached at (206) 389-7260 or mattf@seattlechamber.com

This program reduces unwanted mail for about 150 employees in City Hall and in the Public Works department of the city of Morgan Hill, California. Student volunteers sort through about 25 pounds of unwanted mail each month and contact the senders of that mail, asking that the employees be removed from the mailing lists.

The junk mail reduction project began in early 1998, but really took off in June, 1998, when the student volunteers had more time. Employees place unwanted mail in specially-marked boxes, which are collected by the high school and junior high volunteers. Boxes are located in copier and mail rooms.

The largest and bulkiest pieces of mail are sorted out first. Secondly, volunteers group the unwanted mail according to the business sending out the mail, and by the quantity sent out. The businesses that have sent out the most unwanted mail are called first. The volunteers contact the businesses in a number of ways. First, they use 800 numbers, if one is listed. If there is no 800 number, they use a fax number to send a form letter. If there is no phone number nor fax number, the volunteers mail a form letter.

The program has been a positive experience for the volunteers, who gain experience in customer service and develop phone skills. The volunteers collect about a box of mail a month, or about 25 pounds (300 to 500 pieces of mail). In the future, the program will probably expand to the police department, which would probably double the amount of mail handled.

Source: Tara Gauthier, City of Morgan Hill, CA, July, 1998. Phone: 408-779-7247.

We have put together the following list of tactics to reduce business junk mail at the Santa Cruz County building:

1) Mail from Fred Pryor Seminars (a.k.a. CareerTrack), CompuMaster (a.k.a. SkillPath) Seminars, and National Seminars group (a.k.a. CompEd Solutions) makes up approximately one-third of the junk mail the county receives. It is often the case that one person receives up to four different brochures from each different organization.

What we have learned from dealing with these companies is that it is very easy to remove individuals from their mailing lists. On top of every mailing label is a "VIP number." By calling the 1-800 phone numbers given on the brochures, you can remove an individual from the mailing list if you give the operator the VIP number.

You can go beyond removing just one individual. You can remove the entire company. When you are talking to the operator, ask them if they can enter the company's name and zip code. This will bring up the entire roster of your company that they send mail to. If you are polite to them, they will remove the ENTIRE company from their mailing list. By going through all the mailing labels on the brochures you will discover that there are variations for the company name. Give them all the different variations of names to increase reduction of junk mail.

2) Bulk mail comprises another third of the total weight that the Santa Cruz County building receives. What we do with this is print out post cards on card stock paper. We had to learn how to play around with the copier in order to make a nice-looking post card. The back of the post card says the following: "The following employee(s) at The County of Santa Cruz would like to reduce the amount of unsolicited mail in order to save resources and reduce waste. Please delete the following name(s) from all mailing lists and files. In addition, please notify me when the name(s) have been successfully deleted. Thank you, <Junk Mail Crusader's Name> (Address on front)"

We save the mailings, and when a good pile of the same mailing collects, we cut and paste all the mailing labels onto our post cards. We are careful to place variations in the mailing labels for the same individual ( i.e. John Doe and J. Doe) on the same post card. Using a post card is an efficient method because the senders reply to notify us when they have removed the names from their mailing lists.

3) The last third of the unwanted mail the County building receives comes from catalogues. These are very easy to have deleted. Just call the 1-800 number and talk to the operator. Every time we do so, we ask if they can open the file that contains the mailing roster for our agency. If they can, we ask them to remove the entire agency.

4) The more polite you are to the operators, the more likely they are to help you! We often converse with the operators, take notes, and ask for their extensions. Every time we come across a new article of mail from one of the senders where we have a contact, we call and ask for that operator. They often go out of their way to help us. Build a "Sender's Contact List" of the operator's names and numbers.

We have used these methods to cut the amount of junk mail for the County building in half in just five months. We feel that the amount of junk mail will continue to drop because most senders take up to six months to process the mailing list deletion.

Source: Cesar Castillo, intern, Santa Cruz County Public Works, Santa Cruz, CA, December, 1999.
Phone: (831) 454-2972
Send e-mail c/o Jeffrey Smedberg, Santa Cruz County recycling coordinator, at: dpw179@scruza.cahwnet.gov

(Because this case study is longer, it's on a separate page.)

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