Operational customer communication can cost businesses millions in wasted revenue, while impacting on customer perceptions through unclear content. Here we look at what just one simple letter could cost you...

1. The cost of a
bad letter
Ineffective operational customer
communication is costing you millions -
here’s why.
Rubuss

2. First off...
What do we mean by “operational
customer communication”?

3. It’s this stuff...
The millions of pieces of dry, uninspiring customer
communication sent each month by businesses.

4. For a customer,
they really matter.
Each one is a reminder of
what you think of them, and
the attention you’re putting
into them now they’ve
bought.

5. Statements and billing, complaints
and conflict, contracts, terms and
conditions, legal material and forms,
compliance and regulatory comms,
service support emails and issue
resolution comms, demands and late
payment reminders, contract and
service renewals... So let’s see how
much one of these ignored pieces
could be costing you.

6. 1 Take just one letter. Perhaps a
simple, administrative one
which requires action from
your customer.
Currently, this letter is hidden in your
CRM system, was written by non-
specialists and hasn’t really been
looked at in several years. In fact, no
one really knows it’s there...

7. 2 Let’s say it goes out to 250,000
customers across the year.
250,000

8. 3
Chances are, if it’s not sufficiently clear, you’ll
get enquiries and complaints - plus non-
response from customers. We’ll use a
conservative estimate of 0.5% of customers
having to contact you, tying up an operator or
customer facing team member.
0.5% NEGATIVE
RESPONSE

9. 4
So that’s another 1,250 queries or
complaints across the year you’d
need to manage. Just from one,
simple letter.
1250

10. 5
From independent research, one of these
enquiries costs anywhere between £5 and £50
to resolve. Let’s use a conservative £15 in our
example. If you’re regulated it can cost
thousands for each complaint.
£15COSTINCURRED
PERCUSTOMERQUERY

11. 6
So this simple, single letter, hidden away in the
depths of your CRM system, is causing you
around £18,750 worth of additional cost. That’s
just one letter. And this assumes one-touch
resolution, no reputational damage, no
escalation and no senior manager intervention.
£18,750

12. But £18,750 isn’t going to get
many FDs excited, so what
about a real life example
we’ve worked on recently
which takes into account a few
more real-life variables?

13. Customer who received
communication
70,000
Complaint and query
percentage 18.5%
Cost per resolution
Including escalation, management and
further correspondence
£22
Total cost to business £284,900
From one letter, to just 70,000 customers.

14. Quite simply, you can
shave millions off
wasted budget by
making better use of
operational comms.
We should know,
we’ve helped clients
do it for years.

15. We support and enable you to deliver world
class operational customer communications,
transforming a cumbersome overhead into
one of your most powerful assets.
Rubuss
Sound interesting? Get in touch.
01993 822524
contact@rubuss.com