BT was the UK's second biggest spender on direct mail in the period July 2008-June 2009, according to Nielsen Media Research.
But Matthew Dearden, director of retail consumer marketing at BT, said Royal Mail strike action this year, with the potential for a nationwide strike, was "a concern".
"I'd say to all parties [involved in the strike] that we and all other clients of Royal Mail use [direct mail] because we believe in it and we need them to continue to provide the service. If it becomes unreliable we'll have to look elsewhere. But I have to say that's not in our mind right now."
Dearden said that BT had been "heavily focused on direct mail but now we realise there are many more ways to do direct response. But we'd rather not to be forced to abandon direct mail by an industrial relations issue."
Insurance giant More Than, a top 15 spender on direct mail, echoed Dearden's remarks. Pete Markey, marketing director at More Than, said the strikes so far had disrupted the insurance company's performance, as it did during the last strike in 2007.
"The worry I've got is we have a regular programme of direct marketing to drive response to our call centres," Markey said. "A postal strike disrupts our call pattern. It hits your call centres with higher calls at the wrong time. Insurance in particular is date-driven using renewal data [and a postal strike means] the window of opportunity starts to drop."
Markey added: "We need reliability in the channel as with any supplier relationship - it does start the question the future viability of the channel if there is going to be disruption. You almost have to search for alternatives."
BT's and More Than's remarks came as the Communications Workers Union (CWU) balloted its members on a national strike last week, following a series of regional disputes over modernisation plans. The result will be announced by 9 October.
Earlier this month Royal Mail denied claims that "mountains of undelivered mail" were stuck in Swindon because of strike action.
The Marketing Direct Top 100 Mailers 2009 report is published with Marketing magzine on 14 October.
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