Emailing Form Letters

How agencies communicate with clients and prospects has changed dramatically over the last few years. Most agencies have form letters, maintained in their agency management systems, which enable merging of common client and policy information into standardized letters.

Email has made this process less efficient because data can’t be merged into email easily. Both Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 have a built-in command function (Send to Mail Recipient) that allows you to email merged documents to anyone.

To add this command in Word 2007 to the Quick Action Toolbar (aka Quick Access Toolbar) so that it is readily available, follow these simple steps:

• Click on the Microsoft Office button located in the upper-left corner of Word.
• Select Word Options on the bottom right-hand side of the dialog box.
• Select Customize on the left-hand menu.
• Select All Commands in the top left drop-down.
• Scroll down the list until you find Send to Mail Recipient.
• Click Add to move it over to the right-hand box.
• Click OK and your selection will be saved.

You will now see a new button in your Quick Action Toolbar.

To use this feature, simply go to the mail merge function of your agency management system to create a form letter. Instead of printing the form letter, click on the Send to Mail Recipient button. This will open an e-mail message and you can simply add the individual’s e-mail address and the “form letter” with the merged information will be sent as the body of the e-mail.

You should thoroughly test this process to make sure you understand how it should fit into agency workflow.

Watch a quick demo to see how easy it is to add this command and then merge Word to e-mail.