Four in five UK small and medium-sized businesses believe that today’s postal rate change will have a negative impact on their company.

Four in five UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) believe that today’s postal rate change will have a negative impact on their company.

Of the 1,000 companies surveyed by Pitney Bowes, 7 per cent say that they fear their business may not survive the threat.

With first class stamps rocketing by 30 per cent, almost half (45 per cent) of the SMEs surveyed claim that they will be sending less post and using email to compensate for the lack of postal communications. A quarter say that they would start using second class post more frequently.

Almost three quarters (69 per cent) of those polled say that advance information provided to them was ‘poor and confusing’, and they were not aware that the changes would be so significant.

Phil Hutchison, marketing director of Pitney Bowes UK says, ‘The Royal Mail’s announcement is inevitably going to have an effect on Britain’s SMEs. One in two (50 per cent) of SMEs fear that the postal rate change will have a ‘big impact’ on their businesses, forcing them to change the way that they communicate with customers or even worse put their business under threat.

‘Successful customer communications depend on a delicate balance of message, medium and timing. Although digital communications undoubtedly have their place, traditional print campaigns are still critical for most businesses and are likely to remain so for many years to come.’

See also: Postal strike may devastate SMEs