Desktop shippers using the Postal Service have a new online tool that makes sending packages Quick, Easy, Convenient and accepted.
Package shippers who use Endicia.com or Click-N-Ship on usps.com now can take advantage of Shipment Confirmation Acceptance Notice (SCAN), a new dimension in online shipping. Other PC Postage vendors also have plans to make SCAN available in the future. Customers have a complete online solution for shipping expedited packages with USPS: free packaging, online labels with postage, free Delivery Confirmation service, free Package Pickup and now a SCAN to validate shipment acceptance.
Launched in time for the busy holiday mailing season last fall, SCAN was designed to better meet customer needs for tracking and visibility. It allows retailers who pay for postage online through Click-N-Ship or other PC Postage providers to link each packages information on one piece of paper (PS Form 5630, Shipment Tracking Acceptance Report).
This form, when scanned by a postal employee, will give each package attached to it a Postal Service acceptance scan. It saves significant time by allowing USPS to scan a single barcode for up to 100 pieces much more convenient than scanning each piece individually.
The acceptance scan can also help protect retailers from fraudulent claims by proving their packages were shipped. Once the form is scanned, the acceptance sheet is given back to the customer for his or her records.
One of the first customers to take advantage of SCANs many benefits was Toby Shenefelt, Chief Executive Officer of Unwind.com, a Brandon, Mississippi-based, eight-year-old online business that specializes in relaxation items. Now, when a customer calls about an item, I can give them the tracking number, tell them exactly when it was shipped and give them an estimated delivery date, says Shenefelt. By having a single sheet printed with all my items attached to it, I can file away just one sheet instead of 80 a day.
Another customer, Eugene Buccellato, President of Digital Media of Long Island, New York, ships between 200 and 400 packages per day for his company, which specializes in the sale of memory cards and chips used in cell phones and digital devices. The acceptance scan eliminates about 90% to 95% of my customers concerns, he says. When youre dealing with an online retailer, trust is a big factor. Knowing they can go online and see that their items are in the mail builds customer trust in my business. People remember those kinds of things. Its just good customer service.
Maxspeed-Motorsports.com, a web-based business in Champlain, New York, sells auto parts for high-end vehicles and now uses the Postal Services new SCAN service to manifest packages before taking them to the post office. We send out a lot of packages, both domestic and international, says Nello Tropiano, Maxspeed-Motorsports.com President. Having all the packages linked to one form when we drop them off really speeds things up and eliminates a lot of paperwork.
Tropiano says SCANs feature to allow the customer to see the post office acceptance scan online is also a plus. Online customers can be cautious at first. When they see the acceptance scan on the Internet, it gives them confidence in my company, he notes.
To use the online feature, shippers need only to enter the label barcode number on usps.com or the PC Postage vendors site. I used to field more than 200 emails a day, about half of them related to shipping, recalls Tropiano. Since using SCAN, those types of emails have nearly stopped. SCAN lets me focus on my business. For any company that ships direct to customers, its a must-have service.
Heres another tip: cover your shipping from start to finish by combining SCAN with Delivery Confirmation, which verifies that packages have arrived at their destinations. With these services, the Postal Service gives online shippers end-to-end visibility to meet their business needs covered, from start to finish.
SCAN by creating single-scan manifests for shippers, the Postal Service has added another way to make shipping more Quick, Easy, Convenient for its customers.
