A US Postal Service mail truck was involved in a serious accident. Fortunately, no one was hurt. However, hundreds of thousands of pieces of Thanksgiving mail were destroyed.
For the organizations whose mail was on that truck, the news raised an urgent question: What would happen to their campaigns?
Once notified by the carrier, our production team at TrueSense immediately began identifying the affected trays and determining which campaigns were involved. We needed to understand the potential impact on each in-home date and, just as important, find a way to make up the lost time.
Because TrueSense operates its own production facility, we were able to move quickly. Our team reproduced the affected mail pieces and expedited shipping within 48 hours.
The result: the planned in-home dates changed by only one day.
Our client service teams worked alongside production throughout the process, keeping each affected client informed and providing updates as we confirmed the new mail dates. The response required coordination, urgency and a willingness to do whatever was necessary to keep the campaigns moving.
It was an unusual situation, but it illustrates how control and relationships become especially valuable when a plan changes.
A production schedule can be affected by any number of issues, from printing or supply challenges to transportation problems and postal disruptions. When the unexpected happens, having an agency with an in-house production operation means there are more ways to respond. Instead of waiting for an outside vendor to determine what can be done, the people responsible for the campaign can make decisions and put solutions into motion.
The same is true of US Postal Service relationships. An agency that has spent years working with postal partners has established lines of communication and a better understanding of how to navigate issues when they arise. That familiarity can save valuable time when a campaign is already under pressure.
For Salvation Army fundraising teams, the benefit goes beyond production itself. It’s having a partner that understands how much depends on getting a campaign into donors' hands when planned, and a partner that’s equipped to respond when circumstances change.
No production team can prevent every unexpected event. What matters is what happens next. In 2023, our teams were able to identify the problem, reproduce the affected mail and get it moving again — all within 48 hours. The campaign stayed remarkably close to its original schedule, and our clients were kept informed all throughout the process. This is what it means to be an agile and accountable production partner: protecting the campaign until your message is in the donors’ hands.
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Direct Mail
