LetterStream
Quality Printing and Mailing Services

Not all hi-tech APIs involved hi-tech services. Founded with the purpose of assisting businesses with their printing and mailing needs, LetterStream has taken “a 200-year-old communication channel and wrapped it with technology of the 21st century to take away the burden of creating mailings,’’ says David Patterson, President, LetterStream. “Our customers can focus on their core competencies and let us become their printing and mailing department for getting physical mail out the door.’’

Taking electronically submitted documents from their customers, LetterStream creates authentic physical mail and gets it out the door at the speed of technology. “We will print it, fold it, put it in an envelope, address it, add the correct postage amount and any special services you might need,” explains Patterson. “It can be a single piece or 100,000, it doesn’t matter to us. Our customers stop worrying about large mailings, they stop licking envelopes, and they stop going to the post office.”

“We are a printing and mailing company with some cool technology,’’ states Patterson. Providing a feature-rich website for a great buying experience, LetterStream also developed an API, which handles USPS First-Class mail, Certified Mail, Registered Mail and even FedEx overnight letters. When asked where LetterStream is gaining the most new partners, Patterson explained, “This is the most exciting part about our API. It can be everywhere. Companies are responsible for a large portion of the 150 billion pieces of first-class mail that are sent out each year. We are currently seeing great traction with property and community management companies because a lot of mail is sent to homeowners and renters. Additionally legal and collection software is a growing market for us, especially due to our Certified Mail solution that includes status and delivery tracking. But the field is wide open. We recently signed a software company specializing in property tax statements. Every software package with a correspondence or billing component is an opportunity waiting to happen.

Our customers stop worrying about large mailings, they stop licking envelopes and they stop going to the post office

“With our API, mailings are created while we are all sleeping, both our customers and LetterStream employees,’’ says Patterson. Not being a firm follower of every new API technological trend that comes out, LetterStream’s approach is more about “getting things done,’’ as Patterson puts it. ‘’We have a lights-out print center, which allows documents to be organized, consolidated, and printed before anyone makes it to work. When you are dealing with mail, not everyone is in the same technological era, and the LetterStream API works the second and third shift for us as well as our customers, allowing time-consuming work to take place unattended.’’

When speaking about the competition, Patterson states that they “try not to get focused on what competitors are doing,’’ but rather on what their customers are doing. “Our customers are our chief focus. If we take care of them, the competitors will have to get creative with technology and service if they want to compete with us.’’

Having recently added 2D barcodes to track every single letter and digital sign-in app to promote internal physical security, the customer-centric vision of LetterStream “gets everyone in the organization thinking about the customer first and how to take good care of them,’’ concludes Patterson. “Our roadmap involves picking up more mail, being an uplifting moment on someone’s day and geeking out with more technology to get things done.’’