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Following the Royal Mail’s rate change announcement at the end of last month, 78% of SMEs in the financial services sector believe it will have a negative impact on their business. Research conducted amongst 1,000 SMEs by Pitney Bowes revealed that with first class stamps increasing by 30%, half of the SMEs surveyed in the financial services industry claimed that they will be sending less post, or changing how they communicate. The research also revealed that many SMEs were entirely unaware of the changes. Almost three quarters (69%) of those polled across the UK said that advance information provided to them was poor and confusing, and they were not aware that the changes would be so significant. Alarmingly, 17% admitted that they didn’t know where to go for more information on the subject. Phil Hutchison, marketing director of Pitney Bowes UK, said: “The Royal Mail’s announcement is inevitably going to have an effect on Britain’s SMEs. One in two SMEs with between 101 and 200 employees fear that the postal rate change will have a big impact on their businesses, forcing them to change the way that they communicate with customers or, even worse, putting their business under threat. “However, it’s important that businesses don’t panic and abandon physical mail in a bid to avoid high postage rates; physical mail still has an important part to play. Successful customer communications depend on a delicate balance of message, medium and timing. Although digital communications undoubtedly have their place, traditional print campaigns are still critical for most businesses and are likely to remain so for many years to come.” Pitney Bowes is urging SMEs to take the opportunity to review their entire communications strategy, and for physical mail is encouraging businesses to move to metered mail, which can cut costs immediately. The firm has published more advice online at www.ratechange.co.uk. Other Business Money News
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