I do almost all of my simple administrative tasks myself. Mostly because I try to automate them to make the tasks simple and fast to perform. There is one thing, however, that I hate doing: certified mail. It is a pain to deal with and I always delegate that task to my assistant. I have recently discovered a new service that may make certified mail as easy to handle as other routine tasks. This service, called Simple Certified Mail, automates much of the process. Recently I was able to find out more about this service from Keith Pickholz, Marketing Director at Simple Certified Mail.  An interview with Charles Crutchfield, the founder of Simple Certified Mail appears below.

What is SimpleCertifiedMail.com?

SimpleCertifiedMail.com is an easy-to-use, web-based service that dramatically speeds up and simplifies the preparation and management of Certified Mail, which is a key process at many law firms. In fact, customers report 75% improvements in productivity when using SimpleCertifiedMail.com.

Tell me more about SimpleCertifiedMail.com. Why is it better?

SimpleCertifiedMail.com improves every step of the Certified Mail process.  Let’s start with preparing and sending Certified Mail.

With SimpleCertifiedMail.com, there are no manual forms to fill out, or special forms to put through your printer. And there’s no need to apply stamps or use a postal meter. You simply login to our service, enter the recipient address, and select whether the item is being sent with or without Return Receipt (Electronic). SimpleCertifiedMail.com prints the address and the electronic postage, along with the appropriate Certified Mail bar codes (what we call a Certified Mail “label”) on standard paper from any printer. Everything you need to mail the item, and the whole process takes 30 seconds.

Once you’ve printed the Certified Mail “label” you just slip the Certified Mail label, and your document, into one of the special window envelopes we supply for free, and drop in any mailbox. That’s it for mailing.

Sounds like it saves a lot of time. But what about getting Proof of Delivery?

Good question. Of course, the reason people use Certified Mail is to get signed Proofs of Delivery. SimpleCertifiedMail.com eliminates the old-fashioned green cards, what the US Post Office calls the PS3811. There are lots of problems with green cards: wondering whether they have been signed; waiting for their return; and then having to file the cards to make sure they don’t get lost. Ten years ago the Post Office developed a more modern system, called Return Receipt (Electronic) that returns the Signature and Proof of Delivery as a PDF file, and carries the same legal clout, but normally you have to go to the Post Office counter to request it for every single Certified Mail item.

SimpleCertifiedMail.com plugs you right into Return Receipt (Electronic) without leaving your desk. When one of our Certified Mail letters is delivered, the Mail Carrier collects the signature from the recipient on a form, and it is posted as a PDF file on our web site the very next morning. So you get the signature immediately, you can print out the PDF; you can save it to your case file; and you can leave it on our servers where we maintain all your records for seven years.

The rest of the interview appears below the break

Is there more?

Yes, there is one final and crucial element. Most law firms find it very difficult to track their spending on Certified Mail because there’s labor content, trips to the Post Office, and there’s the postage that comes out of the postal meter. It adds up to many thousands of dollars a year for many firms, but they can’t easily account for it.

Because SimpleCertifiedMail.com is an online service, and all the postage is printed right through our system, all of the important data concerning your use of Certified Mail is kept on our servers. It’s easy to view reports on your usage, sort them any which way, and download the data in Excel worksheets. That way you can really track your expenses, and in many cases, bill them back to clients.

How long has SimpleCertifiedMail.com been available?

For about two years. We’re proud to say that customer retention exceeds 95%. Basically, nobody who has started using our service, has dropped it.

What size of firm is your service ideal for?

Our clients include law firms of all sizes but, of course, we only make sense for firms that use Certified Mail frequently. Generally it’s firms that do a lot of litigation or specialize in such as areas as Debtor in Possession, Creditor’s Rights, Construction Law, and Workman’s Compensation. Or specialists in Trust Management. Really, it’s all over the map.

Do I need any special hardware or software to use the service?

SimpleCertifiedMail.com requires no special hardware or software. All you need is a PC or Mac, an Internet connection, an updated web browser (Internet Explorer version 6 and later; Firefox version 3.5 and later; Safari version 4.0 and later) and any standard printer. You do need special envelopes, but we supply them for free.

What happens to my data if I chose to stop using your service?

We haven’t had many cancellations, but if you decide to stop using our service, you can download a complete record of your transactions before canceling. Or you can request a .zip file of your records from Customer Service.

Do your offer training with your product? If so, what kind?

We’ve created SimpleCertifiedMail.com to be very easy to use. You can see our user guides here. We also run webinars.  You can count on personal attention from our support staff to get you started, and answer any questions you may have during the process.

What is the pricing for SimpleCertifiedMail.com?

We don’t charge monthly fees for our service, or setup fees.

We make our money by adding a small transaction fee to the standard USPS Certified Mail rates. For example, you pay only 35 cents extra for Certified Mail with Return Receipt (Electronic) in a #10 or 6″x9″ envelope; 50 cents for 9” x 12”.

Despite our small transaction fee, our clients report savings hundreds and thousands of dollars each year, based on the productivity of our system, eliminating the use of Postal Meters, the cost of trips to the Post Office, and so forth.

What makes SimpleCertifiedMail.com different from other firms you see on Google searches under Certified Mail?

Other firms have come out with special forms that print through your laser printer, and other services to simplify specific aspects of the Certified Mail process, but nobody else offers a complete solution. For example, we’re the only firm that prints electronic postage right on a plain paper “label”, along with the address and postal bar code data, completely eliminating the need for special forms, postage meters or stamps. We’ve filed for a patent on that process.

Anything else you’d like to mention?

Yes, there is one more thing. We’ve been talking about how users interact with our service to improve their Certified Mail process. But there’s another way. Since we’re a web based service, and we make a set of APIs available, it’s easy for other online software companies to link in with us in order to add Certified Mail capabilities to their own software. We pick up a lot of business this way, and it’s an important thing to mention.