Review Our Product: CFH DocMail

[Printing&Postage]

Hi all!

Any chance of getting some feedback on our postal service offerings?

It's an online postal service called DocMail:


Word files/PDF's + Mailing Address(es)
=
Letters Printed/Enveloped/Delivered to mailing address.

There's a £1 credit on each new account, so you get to send a free letter or 2 and we get some feedback.
DocMail has no minimum volume or volume related charging, so it's suitable for individual letters, or large mailings.

We have a good customer base, but are always looking for suggestions & improvements to what we're offering. So please give it a go, and let us know what you think.
www.cfhdocmail.com

Thanks in advance
Will

p.s.
One more quick question..
...do small businesses out there know about/have some awareness of hybrid mail services like DocMail?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Will

The reason it wouldnt interest me is that 99% of our letters are now sent via email. We create the letters and send them as PDF's via email - this was a result of increased postage, printing and filing costs (as we now use paperless files) so no, for me it wouldnt be a service we would ever use.

 

[Peter Bowen]

Tried to take a look by clicking on the signature link - page cannot be found!

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

The link worked fine for me??

 

[Printing&Postage]

Tried to take a look by clicking on the signature link - page cannot be found!

Ah, appologies for that & thanks for pointing it out Peter - it's the link just before the sig - has a typo in the address.

Should be CFH DocMail.

Will

 

[Printing&Postage]

Will

The reason it wouldnt interest me is that 99% of our letters are now sent via email. We create the letters and send them as PDF's via email - this was a result of increased postage, printing and filing costs (as we now use paperless files) so no, for me it wouldnt be a service we would ever use.

Hi Nicola,

Thanks for the feedback. Paper letters aren't for everyone these days, though they do have some marketing/personal value to some.

We do have a product in the pipeline which might be of interest to you in terms of a paperless office service (can't say too much right now as it's a fair way from release).

Would it be Ok to contact you for some feedback when we have it up and running?

Will

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi Nicola,

Thanks for the feedback. Paper letters aren't for everyone these days, though they do have some marketing/personal value to some.

We do have a product in the pipeline which might be of interest to you in terms of a paperless office service (can't say too much right now as it's a fair way from release).

Would it be Ok to contact you for some feedback when we have it up and running?

Will

Yes Will that's fine - please do.

 

[davidshaw89]

What I want to know is how is this hybrid mail? According to your wikipedia definition its all to do with sending information electronically and then posting from a physical location which is closer than the existing location of the mail, which makes it "greener" because the mail travels less distance.

So for example, if all my customers were in Edinburgh (and I am in Edinburgh), and you were in London, how is it greener for you to send all of my mail from London? According to your web site it says "From our state of the art production facility" - singular meaning there is only one printing/dispatching facility.

I am not trying to slate your pitch, I think it is a great idea - but its definitely not "greener", unless you could come up with some sort of filtering facility where the mail gets printed from the closest dispatch facility available to the address it was being sent.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi David,

Cheers for the response.

It's not our article on Wikipedia (Wikipedia is an open encyclopedia reliant on public contributions), though we are listed on it.
And yes we do only have a single print site in the UK.

The biggest advantage (in green terms) is for overseas customers, who can use our service at vastly reduced rates compared to airmail, without shipping mail from the other side of the world.

Our company's green credentials for UK customers come in the form of our tree planting scheme the TopTree initiative (we're a printing company at heart, so paper's a good place to start ).

Hope that helps.
Will

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hello again,

Just checking if anyone else has had a chance to take a look at DocMail yet?

Any comments are appreciated.

Will

 

[website]

why are you using afflicate links in this post?

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Website,

In the case of this thread; it's the easiest way I have to track the clicks.
If someone signs up, I get an email and we know where the signup came from & what it's purpose is.

I tend to find a lot of the referral URL's (from HTTP headers) get removed by certain proxy servers.

I don't expect any direct business from this thread beyond the possible use of the free £1 credit to test the service out, just some feedback on the service we provide.

To declare my interest properly:
> I'm employed by CFH.
> Referrals in DocMail don't pay per click or signup, they pay per envelope sent.
> My current agreement would add 0.5p per letter sent as credit to spend on my DocMail account.

See the following links for details:
http://cfhdocmail.com/contact.html
http://docpost.com/contact.html (docpost is one of CFH's alternate domains - has better info on the referral scheme)

Hope that clears up any confusion.

Will

 

[hlsps]

Okay, I have signed up and am using the free credit to test the service. I have used a similar service from a competitor recently and prefer your offering. I had come across you somewhere else but misunderstood the 35p credit card fee, assuming this was per mailing so if I only wanted to send one letter it would make it false economy, now I can see I can top up in varying amounts I am not concerned.

As with the other company I dont like the bar coding on the produced letter but accept that this is the way the system works.

What I do like is the choice of font for the address so I can make the address match the rest of my letter. I found it easy to amend the template to suit my letter head and I also like the way the address information can be stored and loaded.

Overall I found this a simple site to use and I can see me using it on a regular basis in the future, depending on the sample that arrives shortly.

I also love the pdf sample before I confirmed the printing.

I spotted the 0.5p referral payment and think that this is a good idea, but in a way would rather pay .5p less per letter than have comission personally. I think the referral comission cheapens the offering slightly.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi hlsps.

Thanks so much for the comments; I was beginning to think I wouldn't get any full reviews!

The barcoding is for production control and tracking purposes, so unfortunately, it has to stay. Though it may be possible (though probably not any time soon) for us to use a less obtrusive alternative in future.

There will be a barcode (for Royal Mail's purposes) on the outside of the envelope too, but that's a requirement for the service we're using to achieve the price we have.

It's nice to see a Virtual Assistant interested in the product too.

The referral credit is mainly to encourage sharing & spreading of the product among customers as it's a relatively new service looking to grow... But point taken on the 'cheapening' effect. I'll pass that and the rest of your comments to the rest of the team & the powers that be at CFH.

Thanks again for the review, & let me know how you get on with the sample.
Will

p.s. out of interest did the competitor's name begin with a "V"?

 

[hlsps]

I couldn't possibly say who the competitor was but would say you weren't a million miles away with your guess there

Apparently from the two people I just emailed the sample pdf to one of them has already signed up, then again I can guess which one and he is into this type of thing!!

I am considering the service as a lower cost alternative for mailshots for Clients. I still think the one I would do on my own printer without the bar code will look more professional for certain clients, but I also think I have a market there for clients who are starting out and where cost is more of a consideration.

I have to say I do as much as I possibly can via email and pdf as has already been mentioned, and have converted some clients over to this, mainly as a result of the postal strike the other year.

I like the option of upgrading to first class post that you have as well.

I have to say, obviously dependent on the quality of the document that arrives, that for 74p for two letters including VAT, printing, paper, envelope and postage I dont understand why this type of scheme isnt taking off more than it already is. It is cheaper than I can do it for, saves me the cost of Royal Mail Smart Stamp and more importantly saves me having to go out in the cold to find a letter box!!

I can see this being a popular option for people who live in remote locations.

Obvioulsy I will come back and give you some more feedback when the letters arrive.

 

[website]

just tried it, how long does it take to send. 71p inc vat for a single paged colour to uk address!!!

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Website.

For orders placed before 17:00, we process overnight and print the next day.

There are then additional 3 days for the delivery process (comparable to 2nd class post).

So expect delivery 4 days after placing the order.
(no Sunday delivery - we use Royal Mail for "Final Mile" delivery)

Will

 

[website]

do you have a driver to download like with viapost? any viapost has a better afflicate program than you (upto 35%) maybe you should better that 4 more business.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi again,

No print driver I'm afraid. - We've been concentrating more on the web portal, API, service usability, and management facilities for your documents, mailings and addresses. As well as our full mail merge for both Microsoft Word and PDF files in the web portal.

We have a business "Associate" scheme for DocMail, though the T's & C's are still being fine-tuned before it's released fully.

As such, I can't release full details; but needless to say, commission on this scheme will be more generous as it's intended for active re-sellers of DocMail, rather than the current reward credit for customers who refer their collegues.

Will

 

[waveuponwave]

This isn't something I've got a need for at the moment, but I think the concept is brilliant: the price seems reasonable, and it'd save untold amounts of hassle. The website is spot on too, and I like the fact that the whole thing's web-based without needing to download anything. Like it!

 

[Printing&Postage]

just tried it, how long does it take to send. 71p inc vat for a single paged colour to uk address!!!

Hi Website,

I hadn't notice you'd stated a single side of colour. With that in mind, the price looked a little high, so I checked through the orders.
(I've assumed yours was the one with the "How Did You Find Us?" set to UKBF)

Looking at the order, the price does make sense; there's 2x1-sided colour pages (32p+10p) & you've chosen the 1st Class post option (20p extra) = 62p + 9p VAT
(see the DocMail price list)

Note: the delivery times I gave earlier, were based on our Standard Delivery option.

The 1st Class option is much faster, as it's sent out as Royal Mail 1st Class at the first Royal Mail pickup after the production is complete.

As your order will be processed Tonight and printed & enclosed tomorrow, your despatch date may be sooner than it states on the order, as that date is calculated based on the Standard Delivery option which involves sortation & extra processing, with a morning-only pickup.

I'll check with production tomorrow and confirm with you when the pickup for you order will be.

Will

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Website,

Thanks for the feedback by the way; it shows the despatch date for 1st class might not be that clear.

1st Class Service

In most cases, a 1st class order means we post the item 1st Class on the next working day.

It's not guaranteed, but we try to get them out on the same day they're produced. We will however always endeavour send them out within 2 working days.

Your Order

For your order, one of our team has raised a query with you by email, as there was some text in the address area (the address has to be in a fixed position), so this text is obscured by the address (as per the proof).

It has been produced, & if you're happy with the version in the proof, then the order should go out today & with a bit of [Royal Mail] luck, arrive on Saturday.

Will

 

[1christopher]

My thoughts:

I tried both CFH and Viapost.

Overall, print quality and colour reproduction MUCH better with CFH. However, a logo i usually print set to transparent BG showed up with a box around it onto the coloured background.

I like the trifold as apposed to in half.

However, any chance you could print right up to the edge?

My letterhead has a coloured background, so if you could do that then CFH would be perfect!

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Christopher,

I'm not sure we can print to the edge for the standard product, but I'll check the full print spec & other potential product options on Monday and get back to you.

Will

p.s.
If DocMail's standard product doesn't suit your needs, let us know, as we're open to suggestions of improvements to the service, & depending on your full requirements & volumes, we may be able to provide a custom solution that meets your needs.

 

[1christopher]

I guess the solution would just be for me to do a different letterhead for CFH, but then that starts to get confusing!

 

[hlsps]

Bit disappointed the letter I ordered as a sample hasn't arrived yet. Thought I had worked out that the latest would be today. Will let you know when it arrives.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi HLSPS,

Thanks for your feedback; it's highlighted a couple of issues with our delivery timings & made
it clear we that need to make the expected delivery time more obvious somehow - we're
currently only showing the expected despatch date (which we should make more prominent).

DocMail currently calculates a despatch date with an extra day's leeway in an attempt to
avoid disappointment. That date is available during an order in the approval screen (using
the "View order summary" button) and is currently the likely despatch date.

It's now clear that this "pessimistic" despatch date on the order is being used as a
"don't despatch until" date in production, meaning unfortunately despatch of your order has
been delayed until today & will now most likely be with you on Wednesday.

For a Wednesday (pre-17:00) Standard Class order, the process should be:
> Produced by Thursday
> Despatched by Friday
> At Royal Mail MailCentre on Saturday
> At the end address on Monday (dependant on Royal Mail)

This is currently being delayed by 1 working day, which for a Wednesday order, means a
Monday despatch, and final delivery on the following Wednesday.

I realise that this isn't the service you'd expect from us (or that we'd intended) & I apologise
sincerely. I will arrange for the credit you spent to be refunded to your account & hope you
can try us again once we've corrected the despatch date problem.

I'll keep you posted on any updates.

Will

 

[website]

still havnt got mine, sent ages ago on first class. slower than viapost!

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Website,

I'll have to chase that one as it should have been picked up by the postie on Friday.
I fear your order may have been held until today as this was the despatch date on
the order.

It's clear we've got some issues with delivery timings. Be assured we aim to provide
the best service possible & will be making some changes tom improve this our delivery
speed.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, it's a great help in refining our service so we can
give you the service you expect. I hope you're not put off, as we will listen and keep
improving the service to suit.

I'll keep you posted on any improvements to the delivery times.
But for the mean time, the despatch date on the order summary (available in the
"Approval Screen") does appear to be correct, with Standard Class arriving 2 days
later, and 1st class arriving the next day.

Will

 

[website]

my order was 1st class, i think that this is very unreliable and for businesses inefficient.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Website,

There's no denying that. We need to improve in this area & through the day
today we've been assessing the best options to improve the service.

But I agree, we've let you down on delivery time.
We will improve. I'll arrange for your free credit to be restored & hope you'll
try us again once we've ironed out the timing issue.

Sincerely.
Will

 

[website]

but in business if you are let down in sending important info fast to a pottential customer you may loose a sale, from reading this thread others have had problems to, i advice that you get independent people to randomly send letters threw your system and see how fast it does (to maybe 10 random addresses) a few times a week. this is the only way to ensure amazing delivery times.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Great suggestion!

We are already using "seed" letters in monitoring some of our other services, so it makes sense to do the same for DocMail.

Cheers.
Will

 

[website]

just recived it, why is their a barcode on the letter ? ? ?

 

[sourcez]

Just tried it and will be suggesting it as an alternative to our current processing system - which is outdated and now in need of both a drum and toner!

Thanks for the free trial, have tested it out.

Cost isn't too bad if you've got a lot to do!

 

[Printing&Postage]

just recived it, why is their a barcode on the letter ? ? ?

Hi Website,

The barcode is part of our production tracking and control systems, & currently a necessary evil.

As mentioned to another poster:

... it may be possible (though probably not any time soon) for us to use a less obtrusive alternative in future.

Will

p.s.
It does appear on the PDF proof approve during an order, so it's not like we're hiding it or anything.

 

[Printing&Postage]

Hi Sourcez,

Thanks for trying the service!
Let me know how it goes.

Will

 

[website]

u should make a thing like viapost has so u just press print and it does it like that.

 

[monkey_tennis]

I prefer another company to CFH, very good service with a wonderful support team behind them.

http://www.ukpostbox.com

 

[website]

I prefer another company to CFH, very good service with a wonderful support team behind them.

http://www.ukpostbox.com

yea they are good if you want to share the same BUSINESS dress with about 100000 other businesses and a few scammers.

google the addresses that they give out.