Fulfilment ought to begin at home

As David Reed points out (MW September 2), effective fulfilment is absolutely vital to any direct marketing campaign – unhappy customers vote with their feet and any business will have to work overtime on retention strategy if fulfilment fails to deliver.

In my view, many of the problems surrounding fulfilment arise from it being handled separately, by a third party. Fulfilment is a vital part of the contact strategy and should be integrated with the overall campaign approach. Failure to do this can only lead to a disjointed campaign and disappointing results.

Fulfilment specialists and in-house teams should work closely with all the client’s agencies as well as the client. I’m a great believer in having planning meetings with the client and all its agencies in attendance – we can all then see the bigger picture, work as a team and deliver the best value for the client.

Carolyn Stebbings

Managing partner

DP&A

London W1