Head’s up! Your Cheese is Being Moved

Block of cheese

You may have noticed the paper, print, and mailing industry reacting strongly to the pending Improving Disclosure for Investment Act (S3815), currently making its way through Congress. If enacted, it would allow financial service providers to default customers to digital communications, even if they previously preferred mailed paper. Expect to see industry groups popping up across social media, urging you to contact your representatives to vote NO!

But if this legislation passes, what does it actually mean for the customer communications industry? Here’s are a few things to anticipate:

🇺🇸 The U.S. will finally begin catching up with the rest of the world in the digital transformation of customer communications. Yes, we are viewed as laggers. 

🔐 Security and privacy will improve with broader adoption of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) protocols and digital identity tools.

🌳 The environmental benefits are undeniable: an email’s carbon footprint can be up to 1,000 times smaller than that of a mailed letter (Mike Berners-Lee, “The Carbon Footprint of Everything,” 2022).

✅ Preference management will move from being a neglected part of the CCM (Customer Communications Management) industry to becoming a central focus, improving customer experience (CX).

🖨️ Document printing will become more localized, shifting from centralized production to home offices and MFPs.

As I’ve often said, the paper, print, and mail industry doesn’t have a “value” problem; it has a volume problem. The demand for digital customer communication is growing and print service providers are uniquely positioned to support financial services companies in their their transformation journey. There is real opportunity in this shift.

For those of us paying attention, this is precisely the kind of disruptive change we’ve been encouraging the transactional communications industry to anticipate and proactively embrace. While print and paper industry lobbying groups may spin tales of doom and gloom, this transformation represents significant opportunities for those willing to adapt. Growth in customer communications will increasingly be digital—that’s where the volumes, budgets, and innovation are heading, and along with them, new revenues and profit for PSPs.

This shift will hit close to home for print service providers in the financial services sector. However, ignoring the trends won’t make them disappear. If this change feels unexpected, it might be time to step outside the echo chamber of the paper, print, and mailing industry. You might even pick up a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson.

The future of customer communications is digital. Are you going to lead or follow?

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