10 Benefits to Automated Letter Generation (Samples Included)
Ira Brooker 
Written: August 13th, 2020 Updated: October 26th, 2023
The way we communicate in the workplace has changed drastically in the past several years. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a sharp uptick in remote work, and with it came a change in how businesses create and distribute documents and communications. Paper documents were already on the way out before the pandemic due to concerns about costs, accuracy, and environmental impact. Now surveys show that 80% of employees want their businesses to make documents available via cloud services rather than relying on paper.
Clearly, the demand for more document automation is there. It falls to businesses to provide their employees and customers with the tools that make it possible. In this post, we’ll focus on one key aspect of document creation: automatic letter generation. Read on to learn more about the key features of automation software, discover the benefits of automating letter generation, and browse samples of letters created using MHC software solutions.
What Is Automated Letter Generation?
Composing letters remains an important aspect of business communications. Letters serve as introductions to customers. They accompany orders and shipments. They convey important information to employees. For high-volume businesses, however, the time and effort involved with drafting each letter from scratch can quickly become too daunting and expensive to keep up with easily. Those businesses need to consider investing in more document automation.
A document automation system addresses many of those concerns with customizable document templates that can accommodate a wide variety of necessary data. Automation allows a user to convert whatever kinds of documents a business uses most into automated forms. That greatly reduces the amount of text and formatting that needs to be inputted when creating a new document. Not only does that greatly reduce the amount of time spent on letter creation, it also helps to ensure more consistent branding and makes it easier to merge data across platforms and maintain compliance with regulations and industry standards.
Automation can be a useful tool for creating a wide range of letters, such as:
Letter Automation Software Features
For enterprise organizations that generate a high volume of letters, MHC document automation software goes the extra mile. Our intuitive system allows even non-technical employees to create quick and accurate letters, while also packing enough power to generate more complex letters at a high volume. That creates a faster, more accurate, and more flexible system that makes it easier to manage the creation, assembly, and delivery of every kind of letter your business needs.
Some of the key features of MHC document automation solutions include:
Letter Template Management
MHC software ensures consistency and reduces the time spent compiling letters by providing a single repository for all of your regularly used document templates, including logos, graphics, and branding assets.
Workflow Automation
MHC solutions allow you to automate letter-generation workflows from initial design to final delivery. Quickly and accurately define participants, configure workflow processes, and automate data collection and aggregation processes.
Letter Assembly
Pull data from single or multiple sources and combine them with other letters and assets, to generate a complete document package. Finalize letters of all kinds and distribute them to print, PDF files, emails, and other avenues.
Omnichannel Document Distribution
MHC makes it simple to create and distribute letters across a variety of channels, allowing you to communicate with customers in the way they prefer, whether that’s email, social media, SMS messaging, or other communication channels.
Batch and On-Demand
Run fully automated, high-volume batch jobs that integrate easily to CRM, websites, and other business applications. Accelerate on-demand, interactive letter generation in real-time as the customer requests them.
Web Forms
Complete personalized letters and other correspondence by gathering data from agents, customers from an online portal, or automatically via integration to business applications. Capture high-quality data from any source, including customers, call center agents, customer care providers, and more.
Responsive Smart Documents
Using visibility into real-time account data, MHC helps you create an engaging, self-service letter generation experience that delivers the right information to each individual customer. Empower customers to control their experience while staying consistent with your brand and image.
Transactions and Localizations
Create letters in one language and seamlessly translate them into any language required. Easily change location-specific information in letters and reuse the same messaging for various audiences across the globe from a single template.
10 Benefits to Automated Letter Generation
Moving your letter generation operations into a document automation platform can help you lower costs, reduce waste, and improve employee productivity. The benefits to automating your letter generation process are endless, but these 10 key benefits stand out.
1. Improved Version Control
If your employees are printing letters from a saved file on the intranet, can they be certain that they’re working from the most recent version? Between paper, file shares, and email, it’s easy for wires to get crossed.
With automated letter generation, you can bypass manual versioning processes and leverage built-in version control instead. You’ll also be able to see the full history of any document in question. Document automation ensures that the latest version of a template is the version that’s used across the board. This way, you’ll always know that you’re working in the right file.
2. Easier Collaboration
From personal letters to collections, there are myriad stakeholders who might need to edit or review a letter before it goes out. That process becomes a lot more costly and cumbersome when it requires routing letters for multiple people to handle one-by-one. Important changes end up getting overwritten, miscommunications are rampant, and one busy stakeholder with a full slate of meetings can hold up approvals indefinitely.
Rather than emailing files back and forth, a centralized platform facilitates simple, effective collaboration. By allowing multiple stakeholders to work together and make edits at the same time, automation both saves time and facilitates more accurate and on-brand communication.
3. Consistent Template Creation
If your company has standard letters that go to customers, partners, or clients on a regular basis, consistency is key.
Along with your document templates, you’ll also need quick access to company assets, including:
- Logos
- Graphics
- Fonts
- Color schemes
- Sub-documents
With an automated letter generation system, you can store all of these resources in one place. This way, you can ensure that all of these elements are consistently applied. Each of those elements becomes part of a template, meaning that updating them individually will update the templates across the board. With the ability to build and modify templates as required, you can also reduce the overall number of templates you need.
4. Tailored Letter Delivery
Individual letter recipients will have their own preferred methods of delivery. Some might prefer theirs in a print version, while others will request theirs emailed. Then, there’s the aspect of appropriately tailoring your communications to meet the unique language and tone that each customer requires.
Rather than starting from scratch each time, you can simplify these efforts by using automated templates. Templates keep vital elements such as branding consistent and uniform while also allowing easy content changes to meet each customer’s needs. Omnichannel distribution makes it a snap to send letters via email, SMS, paper, or whatever a customer’s preferred channels might be.
5. Quicker Package Compilation
Is your letter included as part of a larger client package that also contains other documents and assets? If so, automated document creation makes assembly a breeze. An automated document assembly system makes it simpler to pull together all of the necessary documents and data and compile them into a useful package.
From contracts and policies to new account kits, there are many different forms of packages you might need to assemble. Whether you’re printing everything out or consolidating the pages into a PDF, you can be confident that everything is included.
6. Switches from Batch to On-Demand Mode
Businesses that deal in a high volume of documents often need to generate letters in batches – a one-time distribution of a large volume of identical messages. Those same businesses also need to communicate with customers and clients on a one-on-one basis. Without a flexible system in place, shifting between the two can be a challenge.
Whether you need to generate one quick letter for a client or create an entire batch of documents, automation allows you to easily scale production up or down. With an automated letter generation system, you can easily integrate into your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or website to pull the key data you need for large volumes. At the same time, you’re always “on-go” and ready to create a letter following a last-minute customer request. In addition to batch needs, the intuitive interface also makes personal correspondence easier than ever.
7. Digital Forms to Empower Users
Before automated and assembly systems, fillable forms and PDFs were cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring a long email trail susceptible to deletion. Now, users can access these documents via an online portal. Then, they can complete and submit their portion in seconds.
You can also connect and interact with your customers at any time to retrieve new and updated information as required. Then, you can generate correspondence on an as-needed or on-demand basis, all while reducing your reliance on your call center support personnel. For your part, you can also access the form-specific data you need directly from your business applications.
8. Improved Workflow
As it travels from initial design to final delivery, every letter, document, or report that your company generates requires an effective workflow process. This is especially the case if your customer communications are complex.
When you automate every step, from initial document composition and review to final document assembly, you can eliminate bottlenecks and ensure timely customer delivery. This way, everyone knows their role and when to participate, with instant access to the tools they need.
9. Maintain Regulatory Compliance
There are many different kinds of documents bound by industry requirements, including:
- Collections letters
- Insurance form letters
- Loan approval letters
In these cases, there are often critical components that must be included, as well as some that should be omitted. Missing even one of those elements can result in fines and penalties from regulators and oversight groups. Beyond those initial expenses, noncompliance can do major reputational damage that can alienate partners and suppliers, costing a business even more in the long run.
By establishing review and approval workflows, you can make sure your letters are compliant with such industry regulations, as well as corporate branding standards. In addition, you can also collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to make sure all data points are covered.
10. Reduced IT Reliance
For many businesses, tasks such as making changes to documents, building letter templates, or uploading documents requires the assistance of your IT team. That can lead to delays and communication difficulties that cost time and money.
An automated letter generation system takes that responsibility off of IT’s plate, allowing anyone on your team to create and upload a letter template or make changes to an existing design. By shifting to a system that makes this responsibility simple and intuitive enough for non-technical users to handle, you can reduce or even eliminate the need for this aspect of IT development. Even better, you free up IT to handle more pressing issues while empowering your team to take control of their own communications.
Samples of Automatically Generated Letters
Want to see what automated letter generation looks like in action? We’ve pulled together examples of two commonly automated letter formats, an explanation of benefits and a purchase order letter. These interactive documents replicate the experience of generating a letter using MHC automation tools, with integrated tours, multiple view options, and interactive graphs that illustrate how changes in one field are populated across the document. Read on to find out how automation helps to keep these letters consistent, compliant, and cost-effective.
Explanation of Benefits Sample
An explanation of benefits (EOB) is a key document used in the healthcare and insurance industries. It is intended to help patients understand what costs will be covered by their insurance, as well as what out-of-pocket expenses they might be responsible for.
With automatic letter generation, a provider can easily personalize each EOB to match individual patients’ data and payment options while also ensuring that elements such as branding, required language, formatting, and contact information are populated consistently across every document.
Purchase Order Letter Sample
A purchase order letter is an important transactional document used across a wide range of industries. It confirms the terms and details of a purchase and keeps the seller informed of the buyer’s intentions.
Keep Your Communications Consistent and Compliant
Business communications are evolving rapidly, and producing consistent, accurate, and compliant letters at an enterprise volume is a major challenge. Making the shift from legacy systems to more efficient and effective document production software is a must for staying competitive in a changing landscape. An automated letter generation solution is a must-have addition to your new suite.
At MHC, we offer a range of solutions designed to make your workforce more successful and productive. From document automation to centralized template management to easy data integration, you’ll find everything you need to facilitate easier workflows and improve your customer experience.
Contact us today to learn more and schedule a demonstration of our industry-leading software solutions!
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