Brittney Wood is the mailroom manager at Freed-Hardeman University located in Henderson, TN. With the help of student workers during the school year, Brittney manages inbound mail and packages for students, faculty, staff, and departments across campus. Like many university mail centers, Brittney faced the challenge of maintaining efficient operations with limited resources. To streamline handling of mail and packages and improve communication with recipients, Brittney turned to Received Digital, a cutting-edge solution tailored to meet the unique needs of university mailrooms.
Challenge
Before adopting Received Digital, FHU’s mail center struggled with a few inefficiencies that hindered smooth operations and the overall recipient experience. Brittney, the sole full-time employee in the mail center, described her predicament:
We deliver mail during the school year, but during breaks and over the summer, I cannot leave the mail center unattended to deliver mail. This means that departmental employees need to pick up their mail, but I was constantly running into issues related to the employees not knowing what it was they were picking up. It was big and heavy and they didn't drive. It was addressed to them, but actually was supposed to go to a different department.
The lack of clarity for recipients often resulted in miscommunication, delays, unclaimed items, and many inquiries for Brittney to address. Brittney added:
I had anxiety about the departments that would leave important-looking paper mail not picked up for over a week. I wondered, would they come and get their mail if they knew what it was?
When Brittney came across Received Digital, she was eager to explore how its modern features and functionality could address these challenges and improve communication with recipients.
Solution
After a few detailed conversations about these challenges and a comprehensive exploration of how Received Digital could help solve them, Brittney began using the application—first testing its functionality and then fully adopting it for daily operations.
The implementation process was seamless, supported by a responsive team. Brittney shared her experience:
The implementation and setup process was amazing. Jason had several calls with me to identify if Received Digital would truly be a good fit for my university. During my demo period, I had several questions and Received Digital's support team was always very responsive and helpful.
Received Digital offered a transformative approach to FHU’s inbound operations. The application enables Brittney and her team to easily capture images of inbound mail and packages and send automated notifications to the appropriate recipients. These notifications include an image preview of the mail piece or package that the recipient received, giving them clear visibility into their inbound items.
Benefits
Received Digital’s insightful, image-rich notifications have significantly improved communication between FHU’s mail center and its recipients. This has reduced the amount of inquiries Brittney has to address. Brittney explained,
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. While the phrase is a little overused, it's overused because it's so true. Before Received Digital, I was answering a lot of calls/emails/texts with questions regarding newly received mail. They wanted to know, ‘Is it heavy? Do I need to drive? Is it perishable? Is it that one thing we have been waiting for?'
Now, recipients get the answers to these kinds of questions directly in the notification email they receive, allowing them to more effectively plan their trips to the mailroom for pickup.
There have been several individuals who really have been impressed with being able to see a photo of what is waiting for them. The administrative assistants who pick up the mail in the summertime appreciate it because they can look through and quickly see if they will need to drive to the Mail Center or if they can walk.
Received Digital also gives Brittney complete control over the timing of these notifications, empowering her to better manage her workflow when she’s the only one in the mailroom. Brittney explained,
I love having the ability to image all my items and select which ones I want to send notifications for. It can be very disruptive to try to process mail while people are wanting to pick up their mail, but this feature allows me to better control the flow of people into the mail center.
Conclusion
Freed-Hardeman University’s adoption of Received Digital underscores its commitment to operational efficiency and recipient satisfaction. Through the platform’s advanced features and user-friendly interface, Brittney Wood has successfully transformed the mail center into a more efficient and transparent operation. In fact, Brittney has had such success using Received Digital for faculty, staff, and departmental items, that this semester she plans to expand her use of the application to include items for students that currently require her to draft manual email notifications.
Brittney’s endorsement of Received Digital speaks volumes:
No software is perfect, but it means a lot to me that everyone at Received Digital is truly listening and making decisions based on what their customer needs. Any time that I have had an issue, I get a very quick response from someone who understands exactly what I need. Without a doubt I would suggest Received Digital to other mail operations.
As FHU continues to prioritize the advancement of its mail center operations, Received Digital remains an invaluable partner in optimizing campus mail services and supporting the university’s mission.
About Received Digital
Received Digital has reimagined the inbound mail and package receiving process, bringing a new and modern application to mailrooms big and small. The core of Received Digital is the virtual mailbox for recipients, which creates an interactive platform between the mail center and its recipients. With image-based notifications and a proprietary machine learning algorithm to automatically assign items to recipients, the entire inbound mail and parcel management process is modernized for greater efficiency.
In an industry where innovation is not expected, Received Digital stands alone, innovating with a customer-first approach. Learn more about how it works here, or request a demo from one of our experts to see it in action!
