I am not advocating that you move away from what we would consider as “letters” but moving away from using a “letter” as the default format.
Let me now clarify where I am coming from. We now live in a time where the methods of communicating with your client appears to be in constant change. and this short list may be out of date when you read this:
- Letter, sent by post
- Email
- Placed on web portal
- Use a mobile device App
Even if you are sending something hard copy it does not need to have the formal layout of a letter. It is probably most likely that when you do not print a document that you will create a PDF, it is rare you would send the original Word document. You should also consider in these times of identity theft that using addresses on documents that are not a letter including any identifying data will be minimal.
The method we adopted for documents was to have documents that used just a reference and the Matter description. It mentioned names if applicable. This meant that the documents were then delivered by the chosen vehicle, the list above, and that vehicle would in the case of a letter, email list the enclosures / attachments of for the portal / app where the user may get an announcement there may be a covering note.
Benefits
- Personal info only used if necessary
- Paper lite as all documents didn’t carry address, greeting and sign off
- PDF automatically produced and used for printed and non-printed delivery
- Reduction in need / cost of “headed paper”
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