LetterStream’s New Chatbot Help Box

Let’s face it, we all need a little help sometimes. Even the LetterStream team needs help getting fast and convenient answers to customers 24/7/365 to include all days of the year, including holidays where we’re closed. That’s where our new chatbot friend comes in. We’ve implemented a new online help chat tool designed to help us, help you, with finding the most up-to-date answers as well as tips and tricks to make your utilization of our website and mail-building tools even more powerful.

Ever-Present Chatbot Help Center

Floating in the lower right corner of every page of our website is a help icon. When clicked it summons a powerful chatbot tool, that through the use of AI, can quickly return answers to your most pressing questions. Make note that the floating button never goes away, however, it can be scrolled out of the way by using your side scroll button in the event that it covers something you are trying to read. To minimize the dialog window after getting your answer, simply hit the icon once more and all is hidden from view. Not to worry; your prior conversations are kept so you can refer back to them whenever you open the chat tool again.

Not Like Other Chatbots

Our chatbot is not like the others. No, other chats can get kind of annoying. You know what I mean? You ask a question and feel like you are waiting for a highly distracted person to get back to you. I often imagine one person with a circle of computers around them. Each one with a person in chat. The operator spins their rolling chair from one computer to the next answering 10 people at a time and never really understanding what anyone asks. Anyway, our chat tool isn’t like that. It is blazingly fast and provides extremely accurate information.

But, I Need a Human, Not a Chatbot

Not to worry. We have plenty of humans behind-the-scenes ready to give you even more personalized assistance. As some of you already know, our team of humans do super-human things and can answer any question you may have. They can even propose changes and fixes to our always-ready-to-help development staff. To reach a human, simply send an email to support@letterstream.com. But, while our humans don’t spin around in office chairs (well, sometimes they do for fun), keep in mind that they might be on break, in a meeting, on vacation or working on the next cool feature, so for the fastest answers, be sure to ask your questions in the chat tool first.

I Have an Urgent Need

Believe it or not, this is the main reason we introduced the chatbot in the first place. People sometimes run into snags and need a solution right now, not in 20 hours or after someone returns from a meeting. This makes our decision to employ a chatbot all the more relevant. It’s not just you that has an urgent need, many customers do, and we want to help them all.

Disaster Averted Thanks to Chatbot

Using the chatbot to find answers quickly takes the urgency and the drama out of your day. Another major thing that we do is provide you the tools, within your account portal, to stop, pause or cancel a job at any point up until it is time to mail. To take advantage of this process, simply log into your LetterStream account, find the job in question, and click the word EDIT appearing in the Options column. From here you can choose what you need to do, stop and shred, pause, delete, etc. Some options come and go as the job moves through our production process. For more information see our help article “Changing a Job.”

Help Pages Still Present

Which reminds me! We still have all our help pages, videos and content. Simply navigate to the bottom of any page and select HELP from the list of options in the footer. These resources are still very beneficial and is one more method you can use to get all the help you need.

USPS Stamp Prices Going Down in 2016!

USPS Postage Rates 2016

The biggest news in the mailing business, in maybe forever, or since the forever stamp. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is LOWERING the price of a first-class stamp. The price DECREASE goes into effect on April 10, 2016, when your cost for a first class stamp will be reduced to 47 cents each.

The last time the USPS decreased the price of a first-class stamp was in 1919, when the price dropped a single cent from 3 cents each to 2 cents each. Now, the greatest price decrease in the price of a first class mail stamp since 1885; the USPS is cutting the price of a first-class stamp by a whopping 2 cents! For more information check out the wikipedia page on the History of United States postage rates.

Why are Stamp Prices Going to 47 Cents?

The federal regulatory body that governs USPS pricing is the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC)(https://www.prc.gov). This organization decides whether the Postal Service can raise prices and by how much. A year ago the USPS was given a special waiver by the PRC to increase prices by more than the maximum amount allowed (according to their rules), so now the PRC is making the USPS roll prices back.

It really makes no sense though, as the post office is still operating at a loss. Follow this link to read the USPS press release on the topic of lowing prices (https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2016/pr16_009.htm).

What Other Postage Prices are Changing in April?

In addition to the decreasing price of a first-class stamp, other stamp prices are going down as well. In fact, nearly every increase that took effect in 2015 is being reversed. Seems a bit odd that the Postal Regulatory Commission and the USPS couldn’t work out a meet-in-the-middle solution, but their loss turns out to be mailers’ gain. Here’s a sampling of new postage rates:

First-Class Postcards will decrease from $.35 to $.34 each (reversing last year’s increase)
Additional ounces for First-Class mail will decrease from $.22 to $.21 (reversing last year’s increase)
Certified Mail base fees will decrease from $3.45 to $3.30 (reversing last year’s increase)
Certified Mail Return Receipt Green Card fees will decrease from $2.80 to $2.70 (reversing last year’s increase)
Certified Mail Electronic Return Receipts will decrease from $1.40 to $1.35 (reversing last year’s increase)
International First-Class Letters will go down from $1.20 to $1.15 (reversing last year’s increase)
One ounce First-Class flats will decrease from $.98 to $.95, and 2 ounce pieces will fall from $1.20 to $1.15 (reversing last year’s increase)
Registered Mail letters will decrease from $12.20 to $11.70 (falling more than last year’s increase by another 25 cents)
The price of a First-Class Stamp will fall from $.49 to $.47 (there was no increase in the price of a first-class stamp last year)

We encourage everyone to take advantage of the cheaper postage prices in 2016 and send more mail. If you need some help with that, give us a call, we are what you call experts.

USPS Postage Rate Increase on January 26th

USPS 2014 stamp 49 cents

As a reminder, the United States Postal Service (USPS) will be increasing the price of a first-class stamp from $.46 each to $.49 each on January 26th, 2014. If you are planning on getting a mailing out the door this month, you can save money by sending it a few days early.

LetterStream will be raising its prices on all first-class mail products by 3 cents to cover the cost of the USPS price increase. Our new prices will take effect at 5:00 pm on January 24th, as jobs received over the weekend will be mailed on Mon. Jan. 27th at the new postage rate.

As is our tradition, LetterStream has no plans to increase prices beyond the USPS increase. Keep in mind that the USPS has raised prices on postcards, flats, certified mail and other products as well. These increases will be reflected where appropriate in LetterStream prices. We look out for our customers as best we can!