Case Study
The Challenge
When Nancy Haferman found out that her husband’s company wanted him to work in Singapore for two years, she realized that she needed a solution for managing her family’s U.S. postal mail during their stay abroad. With a 6-year-old daughter, an established home, and a nearby network of family and friends, she was uneasy about the prospect of relocating to the other side of the world. Eventually, however, the excitement of the opportunity won out and the Hafermans decided to make the move. She would not encounter all the details and difficulties that would follow the decision, though, until she was far down the path of relocation.
The Solution
Instead, Haferman signed up for Earth Class Mail, a breakthrough postal-mail management service that lets customers receive and manage their mail online. It’s ideal for expatriates, frequent travelers, RVers, snowbirds, and anyone else who wants to simplify their lives and easily maintain personal and business correspondence from wherever life takes them, while also ensuring the security of their personal and financial information.
Earth Class Mail’s innovative service digitizes Nancy’s postal mail at the beginning of the delivery process and then presents images of the envelopes and packages to her online, conveniently and securely. So whether she’s at home in Singapore or traveling in Malaysia, any location with Internet access can in effect become Haferman’s P.O. Box. She views the images of her mail in her online account and then, for each mail item, directs Earth Class Mail either to recycle it, shred it, open it and scan the contents for online viewing, or forward-ship it directly to her in Singapore or to another address.
Earth Class Mail also provides her with the assurance that confidential information contained in mail items is protected: All customer mail is processed in a secure facility by monitored personnel, and those who open and scan the contents of mail items have Department of Defense or civilian-equivalent security clearances.
“The convenience and timeliness is simply incalculable,” she says. “I talk with Americans here in Singapore a lot, and whenever I tell them about Earth Class Mail their eyes light up. People with a new address, or addresses that change frequently, they immediately see the value of this service.”
The Results
In addition to the advantages of now having digital copies of official documents that were mailed to her U.S. address, Haferman appreciates the dramatic reduction of incoming paper at her compact Singapore home. “Americans are used to having more room,” she says, “yet as resources are constrained we all have to be more efficient. It’s difficult to quantify in financial terms, but the convenience and peace of mind Earth Class Mail provides me, well, it’s priceless.
“I hate paper,” she adds, “and the idea of that pile of mail we had to sort and deal with at home simply traveling across the world to land on my table in Singapore — that was ridiculous. Earth Class Mail is immensely important to me as an American abroad, but I’m not going to give up the benefits of it when we go back to the States. It’s eliminated a headache from my life.”
I have moved 10 times during the past decade, and with Earth Class Mail I never lose track of my postal mail. I don’t have to worry about things getting lost or the reliability of mail forwarding and I can see it from anywhere. It’s nice to bring my postal mail into a world as manageable as email.
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