What do consumers think of a P.O Box/Community mailbox mail has arrived notification system?

14 Mar 2016

A recent (March 2015) survey of customers by a third party company* on behalf of Snaile found that 42 percent of those questioned said ‘yes’ they wanted a notification device while 10 percent said they may be interested.
The research, conducted on 400 Canadian households who currently use or expect to use community mailboxes, suggested that though consumers have been quietly using P.O. Boxes and community boxes likely because many have no choice, more work needs to be done to improve the customer experience and educate the user in these new technologies.

A great deal can be learned about customer behavior in how often they check these boxes. Being able measure how to influence this frequency using our device may then translate to being able to monetize this in direct mail applications. A premium may then be charged for neighborhoods that tend to check their boxes more frequently and/or integrating into campaigns what influences consumers to check boxes more frequently may increase direct mail response rates. This information may be a useful factor in targeting direct mail campaigns.

In addition, usage data can help postal operators optimize their last mile box network. For example, the ability to be able to determine that one set of boxes does not get checked as frequently as another may indicate the former is not placed in the optimal location.

The possibilities are endless. How else could data from these boxes help operators?

*Conducted by Advanis Inc., an accredited and Gold Seal member of Canada’s market research association (MRIA). Survey confidence level is 95% within an interval of +/- 5%