In a significant rebranding effort, Lbox Communications, a UK-based mail distribution service, renamed their innovative Targeted Delivery and Mapping Platform (TDMP) to tellthem™, a name that better encapsulated its purpose: facilitating the streamlined delivery of essential mail notifications to keep communities informed.
tellthem™ has gained traction across diverse organisations, including Network Rail, GRAHAM Construction, Kanda Consulting, Balfour Beatty and The Royal Borough of Greenwich. This unique platform is actively helping teams save time and reduce costs, with a free trial demo readily available.
Streamlined and efficient, tellthem™ simplifies fast and accurate mail communications. The construction industry in the UK is witnessing a surge in building projects. In 2022, the country experienced a 5% increase in construction output, ranging from large-scale civil engineering projects to local road and rail works.
Despite their varying scopes and costs, many of these projects share a common thread: the need to notify affected residents, businesses, and stakeholders about potential disruptions. This practice is not only mandatory but also essential for minimising disturbances, encouraging public feedback, and ensuring community awareness.
However, historically, sending these critical mail communications has been a time-consuming and laborious process, resulting in significant productivity drains.
“For the longest time, reaching the right recipients with essential mail notifications has been a demanding and time-consuming process,” says David King, CEO of Lbox Communications and the visionary behind tellthem™.
“We often heard stories of people spending hours manually drawing maps, counting houses, and painstakingly compiling address lists,” he adds.
“Furthermore, the back-and-forth conversations with print and postage providers painted a vivid picture of the tremendous effort required for each batch of communications. When multiplied across numerous projects, it became evident that organisations faced a real challenge.”
To address these outdated practices, Lbox developed tellthem™, a one-of-a-kind TDMP tailored to industries where essential mail communications play a crucial and valuable role. Such industries include construction, highway works, railworks, property planning, utilities and telecoms, and the public sector.
The goal behind tellthem™ was simple: to transform the hours spent organising mail campaigns into mere minutes while consolidating all tasks into one inclusive online platform.
“We thoroughly understood the challenges faced by our clients, which is why we created tellthem™,” explains King. “Now organisations can custom map delivery areas with pinpoint accuracy and arrange print, fulfillment, and delivery within minutes through a single online platform, all without requiring a subscription.”
How does tellthem™ work? According to Lbox, it has revolutionised the process of reaching residents, businesses, constituents, and stakeholders with mail notifications, making it faster and simpler than ever before.
Designed to ensure that crucial notifications reach the right recipients at the right time, tellthem™ serves as a platform for sending various types of important communications, ranging from construction notices and planning consultations to community newsletters and surveys.
To simplify the process, tellthem™ incorporates powerful features such as Google Maps and instant search tools, enabling quick, easy, and convenient identification of the relevant areas and addresses.
“We have also made it possible for tellthem™ users to search for delivery areas using a wide range of criteria, from postcodes to local landmarks and what3words codes,” King explains. “This flexibility allows them to identify the right areas based on the information at hand.”
The platform also includes an ELR (Engineer’s Line Reference) search function, a feature developed through Lbox’s strong relationship with Network Rail. This function enables railworks industry professionals to instantly identify specific stretches of rail lines they need to work on.
During their initial research, Lbox discovered that their clients heavily relied on paper maps and markers to delineate their delivery zones. To modernise this approach, tellthem™ incorporates three built-in digital mapping tools: Polygon, Radius, and Buffer Line.
“Whether users need to focus on single roads and postcodes or create multiple maps to cover larger areas, our smart and versatile mapping functions offer freedom and flexibility, allowing anyone to draw the necessary delivery areas within seconds,” says King.
The traditional method of community notifications often involved manual address counting, which proved to be a laborious and time-consuming process, making cost estimation another challenge.
“With tellthem™, as users adjust the size of their target maps, delivery methods, and mail formats, their changes are instantly reflected in the quote. This ensures complete transparency regarding where mail notifications are headed and how much they will cost at all times.”
The rapid and efficient planning facilitated by tellthem™ is made possible by Lbox’s experienced team and commercial-grade technology. Users can choose from a wide range of paper stocks, and campaigns are executed promptly, often ready for next-day delivery through Royal Mail or Lbox’s uniformed, GPS-tracked distributors.
By enabling users to upload artwork, schedule delivery, and choose postage options through a single online platform, Lbox believes that tellthem™ has simplified the coordination of outreach efforts like never before.
“Say goodbye to highlighters, farewell to paper maps, and put calls to print and delivery providers on hold. tellthem™ takes care of everything through one fast, simple, and free-to-use platform tailored to your specific requirements,” concludes King.
