Address
Quality Equals Success
Decisions made about address quality affect your ability to
reach valued customers. Cost-effective and timely delivery of every mail-piece
depends on a valid address containing complete and accurate address elements.
There are many Address Quality products and services designed to help business
mailers resolve these addressing challenges, keep postage budgets in line
and achieve total address quality.
We
Have the Tools You Need
The United States Postal Service® National Customer
Support Center (NCSC) in Memphis, Tennessee is the premier resource center
for business mailers. The NCSC provides value-added, innovative products,
services and technical expertise to enable USPS® business customers
to better manage the quality of their address data. Savvy mailers take full
advantage of these mailing tools to standardize, validate and update address
data.
It is easy to see the benefits of your mailpieces reaching their intended
audience quickly and with the greatest cost savings. To achieve Total Address
Quality you must:
Standardize
your Address Data
It is important to start with a standardized address that
is correctly formatted. Using standard abbreviations and correct spellings
allows each element of the address to be matched against the Postal Service™
ZIP + 4® database for proper ZIP + 4 code assignment. ZIP + 4 coding
is a prerequisite for barcoding and receiving cost saving automation discounts.
Using CASS Certified™ software to standardize address databases will help
you further realize the Total Address Quality vision and allow you to:
Validate
Address Data
Once you have a quality standardized address to work with,
you should take the next step and validate that the address is a valid delivery
point within the USPS delivery database. There are several tools available
to secure the vision.
CASS Certified software offers enhancements to validate addresses. Ask a software or service provider about using the DPV™ product with a process which will confirm that the addresses in a database are valid delivery points. Using the LACSLink™ product to update rural style addresses into city style addresses helps assure timely delivery.
Validation solutions exist for troublesome addresses as well. Virtually every mail list is plagued with addresses that seem irresolvable. AEC enables you to submit your “bad” addresses for resolution through the Postal Service using enhanced computer logic. Going a step further, AECII uses Postal carriers to identify and correct address errors as well as identify addresses that do not exist.
To secure the Total Address Quality vision and have utmost confidence in
the deliverability of address data:
Update
your Address Data
You can see that a quality address certainly makes the difference
in delivering your mailpiece to a valid delivery point. But the 40 million
Americans who move every year and the possible physical address changes to
route or ZIP Code™ information can create formidable obstacles in maintaining
a high-quality mailing list.
Pre-mailing tools such as Electronic Address Sequencing (EAS), Computerized Delivery Sequence (CDS), and the ANKLink™ and SUITELink™ products are designed to provide you with the latest information for the addresses in your database. The NCOALink™ product will tell you if your existing customer has filed a change of address record - before you mail to their “old” address.
ACS™ service provides address change information electronically for forwarded mail, giving you another opportunity to maintain up-to-date addresses for customers who have moved.
Keeping current addresses on file is essential to reaching your valued customers. Now you can stay on top of the constant changes to your address data by utilizing the update products and services available.
REMEMBER
The necessary steps to standardize, validate and update your
address data can really pay off in contacting and retaining that very important
customer. Let the USPS® suite of address cleansing products help.
For information about any of these products or services, visit http://ribbs.usps.gov
and click on the Products, Services and Publications Guide or call the NCSC
at 800-238-3150.
NATIONAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT CENTER
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
6060 PRIMACY PKWY STE 201
MEMPHIS TN 38188-0001