Mailroom Tips & Tricks - FS Guide

• Always use a consistent naming convention across your system, in particular and especially for 1) form letters, 2) batches, and 3) issue codes. Having a consistent naming convention for these makes clear that the “117 EDU - For the People Act - Pro” form letter should be assigned to the “117 EDU - For the People Act - Pro” batch and likewise that mail tagged with the same issue code. This prevents a proliferation of duplicated form letters/batches/issue codes that all serve the same purpose.

• Utilize issue codes often and effectively. They are the most useful tools for gathering demographic data within your system based on your correspondence engagement with constituents.

  • Generally, whoever is working in the Inbox and logging mail should be an account owner so that they are able to easily manage the issue codes within your system

• Check “My Mail” regularly  to see whether there are any pieces of correspondence which may have been mistakenly mislogged. The My Mail page will also show any inactive staff who still have mail assigned.

• Keep the number of form letters/batches at a manageable level so that you can respond efficiently to constituents. You may want to give each constituent an individualized response, but that may not mean you need a new form letter each and every time you make a new batch. Sometimes, you may simply need to customize an existing form letter to do the trick. Creating multiple different batches or form letters simply because a message is slightly different can lead to a situation where you have numerous batches awaiting an individual response which can unnecessarily distract and hinder your overall mail program.