Transcript Great Addressing - Essentials of Address Quaility

®
The ROI of
Great Address Quality
SANTA ANA DISTRICT PCC
Scott Jones: Manager Business Mail
United States Postal Service®
Jim Green: Postal Affairs
Automobile Club of So CA.
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Overview
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What is a quality address
How address validation tools can help
ROI of Address Quality
Determining the right COA Process
Common COA Problems
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Great Addressing Is Important!
A quality address helps:
 Acquire customers
 Retain existing customers
 Increase response rate
 Keep postage costs in check
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Why Address Validation Matters
 Address Validation is one of the key
components to your mailing process
 Addresses that do not validate are
at risk of non-delivery
 Databases go “stale” over time without
continually updating the information
 There are many reasons an address
can fail. You need to ensure they are:
• Complete
• Correct
• Current
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Can You Recognize A Bad Address?
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Can You Recognize a Bad Address?
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What is a Quality Address?
A quality address is defined when:
All necessary elements are complete and correct…
Pre-directional
Primary address number
Street name
Street suffix
Post-directional
Secondary identifier
Secondary number
City
State
ZIP + 4® code
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What Is A Standardized Address?
Address elements are printed on envelopes in standard
format:
 Format all lines of the address with a uniform left margin
 Uppercase letters are preferred on all lines of the address
block
 Fully spell out or abbreviate words using USPS® standard
abbreviations
• www.usps.com
• ribbs.usps.gov
 Publication 28, Postal Addressing Standards
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CASS™ Product
 USPS® certified benchmark
 Sets minimum performance standards for
commercial ZIP + 4® address matching software
 Developers must pass USPS test for CASS certification
 Address matching software attempts to match
addresses against range-based records on
USPS ZIP + 4 file
 Pre-Mailing process
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DPV® Product
 Confirms the existence
of a deliverable address
 Identifies a commercial
mail receiving agency
 Improves address
assignments
 Helps to reduce UAA
Is 249 High St in ZIP Code™ 94301 a valid address?
Yes or No
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Address Management – Ongoing Process
 Each mailer is different – there is not a one-size fits all
solution
 Managing address changes is not a point in time event
 The initial address capture is critical to all addressing
processes including getting a COA hit
 The Move Update compliance requirements have to be
met but just meeting the requirements might not be the
right solution to maximize your address quality
 As with any business process, establish metrics to
determine where addressing issues exist
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Things To Remember About COA
 Name matching criteria is different
NCOALink® has the strictest
 The NCOALink output provides a lot of data that can
be used for metrics
 Important to match against date the address was last
changed when updating COAs
 The process should validate that the new address
DPV® confirms
 Full Service provides free ACS™ for automation
mailpieces
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LACSLink® Product
 Provides a database of municipality-introduced address
changes
 The data is provided by USPS® through the LACSLink
product
• Conversions come into the database from Postal
carriers and municipalities
 Updating the addresses using LACSLink data ensures
deliverability and prevents further UAA mail
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Scenario: LACS Conversion
 LACS stands for
Locatable Address Conversion System
 It reassigns rural addresses to a more
friendly format that is more easily
accessible by emergency services
Example:
RR 2 Box 317
Beaver Falls, PA
Becomes . . .
1444 Halas Ln
Beaver Falls, PA
15010-6929
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Scenario: LACS conversion
LACS also provides updated rural addresses when they
expand an address range - usually because they have run
out of numbers - and reassigns addresses within that area.
Example:
47785 Forman Rd
Polson, MT 59860
Becomes . . .
412634 Forman Rd
Polson, MT 598608368
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SuiteLink® Product
 Improves address assignments
to business addresses by adding
known secondary (suite)
numbers
 Provided a business name and
an associated ZIP + 4® coded
address matches to a high-rise
default, the SuiteLink process will
return the appropriate suite
number when available
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LACSLink® Return Codes
A
LACSLink Record Match - The input record matched to a record in the master file. A new address
could be furnished.
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No Match - The input record COULD NOT BE matched to a record in the master file. A new
address could not be furnished
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LACSLink Record Match: Highrise Default – The input record matched to a record in the master
file, but the old address is a high-rise default.
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Found LACSLink Record: New Address Would Not Convert at Run Time - The input record
matched to a record in the master file. The new address could not be converted to a deliverable
address
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LACSLink Record: Secondary Number Dropped from Input Address – The input record matched to
a master file record, but the input address had a secondary number and the master file record did
not. The record is a ZIP + 4 street level or high-rise match
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NCOALink®
 USPS® licensed product using address change
information when individuals or businesses inform
the USPS of their move
 Provides electronic Change-of-Address information
 Average correction rate (with new address) – 3.21%
 Three different license types
 Variable costs
 Pre-Mailing process
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NCOALink® Service
 A pre-mailing Move Update method leveraging USPS®
provided data
 Data delivery from USPS to certified licensees
 Four levels of usage for certified licensees:
• End User Mailer
(18 months of data updated monthly)
• Mail Processing Equipment
(MLOCR)(18 months of data updated weekly)
• Limited Service Provider
(18 months of data updated weekly)
• Full Service Provider
(48 months of data updated weekly)
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AEC & AEC II®
 USPS® provided service for all customers
 Resolves physical address deficiencies
 Sent to the USPS on electronic media
 AEC Cost - $20.00 per thousand
• Average correction rate - 28%
 AEC II Cost - $0.30 per record
• Average: 88% resolution rate
• Average: 60% correction rate
 Pre-Mailing process
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NCOALink® Total Records Processed
and Corresponding Matches
1,000,000,000,000
900,000,000,000
800,000,000,000
700,000,000,000
600,000,000,000
500,000,000,000
400,000,000,000
300,000,000,000
200,000,000,000
100,000,000,000
0
3.32%
3.89%
3.01%
2.92%
3.06%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Processed
636,238,206,593
674,586,820,283
766,447,478,454
902,945,299,061
987,800,758,304
Matched
21,149,424,646
25,847,303,892
23,103,730,603
26,322,037,954
30,258,995,209
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UAA Mailpiece Disposition
There are several options:
 Return all
 Dispose all as waste
 Forward or return
 Forward or dispose
as waste
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Mail Treatment
 The default treatment for First-Class Mail® is to be
forwarded or returned with no additional postage paid
and no address correction notice
 Unendorsed Standard Mail® or Bound Printed Matter
is disposed as waste with no notice to the mailer
 Standard Mail and Bound Printed Matter can be
forwarded or returned but requires additional fees
and a printed Ancillary Service Endorsement (ASE).
For instance the weighted fee for a 1 oz. piece of
Standard Mail that could not be delivered or
forwarded is currently $1.14
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Documentation From List Vendor
 CASS™ Report 3553
• DPV®
• LACSLink®
• SuiteLink®
• Total ZIP + 4® Coding
 CASS Summary Report
 AEC Summary Reports
 NCOALink® Summary Report
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Value of Correcting Your Data
 Reduce postage costs
 Reduce printing costs
Example:
10,000 piece mailing X 5% (average UAA rate) equals 500
mailpieces with errors
Saved postage at Standard Mail® rate $0.29 X 500 = $145
Saved printing at $0.95/folded sheet X 500
= $475
Savings =
$620*
*Money saved in postage and printing by not printing and mailing to bad addresses.
That is what you saved,
but what have you lost?
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The Real Money is in Fixing the UAAs
From previous example of 500 UAAs
 Use AEC = $10.00 (there is a min., but you can group lists)
• $20.00/1,000 typically fixes 32% of UAAs
500 x 0.32 = fixed 160
now only 340 UAAs
 Use AEC II® = $102.00
• $0.30/resolution typically fixes 80% of UAAs
340 x 0.80 = fixed 272
now only 68 UAAs
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The Real Money is in Fixing the UAAs
From previous example of 500 UAAs
 Upload remaining UAAs to List Company =$17.00
• $0.25 x 68 fixing 50% of UAAs
68 x 0.50 = fixed 34
now only 34 UAAs remain
Total spent fixing 466 records =
$129.00
A short demonstration about using a list company to
correct addresses older than 4 years.
(USPS® NCOALink® Full Service License
database only goes back 4 years)
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The Real Money is in Fixing the UAAs
From previous example of 500 UAAs
 466 records fixed for $129.00
 If the response rate was 5% and the average value of a
sale was $150
 466 delivered pieces x 0.05 response = 23 sales
 $150 per average sale = $3,450 in sales
 For $129.00, you generated $3,450 in revenue
Would you rather save $620 by not mailing to those 500
UAAs or make $3,450 in potential revenue from those
corrected addresses?
This is a 1 to 26.7 ratio. If you mark it up 100%, it is a 1 to 13.35 ratio
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 The quality of your address data directly affects the
deliverability of your mail!
 USPS® provides an extensive suite of Address Quality
products and services; check out ribbs.usps.gov.
 USPS is committed to continuous address hygiene
improvements to enhance the value of mail.
 Small efforts can bring big results!
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Hardcopy Address Correction
 Either return of the piece with the correction or
reason for nondelivery affixed, or
 A separate address correction provided as an image
of the piece with the associated old and new address
or reason for nondelivery, PS Form 3547
 Return postage or
address correction
fee may apply
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ACS™ Service
 Post-mailing service provided by the USPS®
 Participants include an identification code on the
mailpieces
• Traditional (printed participant code as shown left)
• OneCode ACS® or Full Service (IMb™ as shown on
right)
#BWNFXZT
#P123456789 2572X 7 #
JOHN E SMITH
916 N 5TH ST APT 3
SPRINGFIELD IL 62702-5288
JOHN E SMITH
916 N 5TH ST APT 3
SPRINGFIELD IL 62702-5288
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ACS™
 Traditional ACS™, OneCode ACS® or Full Service ACS
 Provides electronic Change of Address notices for
undeliverable mailpieces
 Mailers apply a participant code and an optional keyline
OR Intelligent Mail® barcode to mailpiece
 Requires an ancillary service endorsement
 Can reduce costs associated with manual returns and
manual keying of data
 Centralized fulfillment option (SingleSource)
 Post-Mailing process
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What is a Service Type ID (STID)?
 The Intelligent Mail® barcode
allows the 3-digit Service
Type ID field to contain
information that tells USPS®
which treatment you want for
your Undeliverable As
Addressed (UAA) mail
 These services include
• mailpiece disposition
• address correction options
• IMb Tracing™
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STID Components
 Mail Class
•
•
•
•
First-Class
Periodicals
Standard
Package Services
 The Mail Entry Option you’re using
• Full-Service
• Basic
• Non-Automation
 IMb Tracing™
• Based on the retired Confirm® product
• Destinating
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STID Components
 Instructions to USPS® for disposition of your
undeliverable mail
• Forward
• Return
• Dispose as waste
 Instructions to USPS for address correction format, if
any
• Hardcopy
• ACS™
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Table 4
Partial STID table
from the Guide to
Intelligent Mail®
Letters and Flats.
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Resources for Service Type IDs
 A Guide to Intelligent Mail for Letters and Flats
New, fully loaded Table 4:
https://ribbs.usps.gov/intelligentmail_mailpieces/doc
uments/tech_guides/stid.pdf
 Appendix A: Ancillary Services –
Service Type Identifier (STID) Detailed Explanation:
https://ribbs.usps.gov/intelligentmail_guides/docume
nts/tech_guides/AncillaryServices_STID_Detailed_E
xplanation.pdf
 IMb Tracing® home page:
https://mailtracking.usps.com/mtr/landing/resources/
confirm/landingConfirmLaunch.jsp
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General Advice
 Do not request forwarding for Standard Mail® (Forwarding
Service or Address Service Requested) unless you really
want to pay 2.472 x the single piece price to get it back.
 Do consider allowing First-Class Mail® that you do not
need returned or you do not want forwarded to be
disposed as waste.
 Do use both Table 4 for the quick lookup and Appendix A
for all the details around the STIDs, associated
endorsements, constraints, and what will happen to the
piece if the barcode isn’t read.
 Do use the general Ancillary Service Endorsement
Electronic Service Requested when requesting a service
for the most flexibility in use of your Mailer ID.
 Do plan for STID changes and updates in your mail
preparation software.
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Common Address Quality Problems
Physical Address UAA
ACME PRODUCTS
4759 WESTERN ST
NEW YORK NY 10022-5279
398
Millions
Pieces
ofPieces
Millionsof
CARL SHULER
SHULER
BROWN
CARL
1414
LAKE
LARK
ST
ST APT
APT3A
3A
1914
PO
BOX
1414 LAKE ST
APT
CHICAGO
IL
60614-1910
CHICAGO IL 60614-1905
226
134
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Missing Apt or
Ste Number
Incorrect
Number
Incorrect
Recipient
Missing
Number
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Missing RR or
Box Number
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Incorrect
Street Name
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USPS® has determined that up to 23% of all mail contains
addressing errors.
Common errors:
Addressee moved …………………………………
Directional/Suffix missing ………………………....
Street name/Number incorrect/invalid ………....
ZIP Code™/City incorrect …………………………
Apt number/Rural Box number missing …………
Total
2.4%
6.0%
5.9%
4.8%
4.5%
23.6%
USPS—AEC and AEC II® User Guide, p. 3
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Bad Addressing Issues
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Inconsistent filling of fields
Missing gender indicator
Trailing space after name or address
Misspelled words/Improper abbreviations
Missing or wrong street, directional, prefix, suffix
City, state, or ZIP Code™ missing or in conflict
Missing or incorrect secondary address information
Incorrect company legal name or reference name
Dual names
Extraneous information in name field
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What is Move Update?
Move Update describes the process of periodically
matching a mailer’s address records with customerfiled Change-of-Address orders received and
maintained by the Postal Service™
Move Update =
Fewer Forwarded and Returned Mailpieces
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Who Must Use Move Update?
 Presorted or Automation discounts for First-Class Mail®
 Standard Mail® discounts
 Addresses on mailpieces updated using an approved
method within 95 days prior to the mailing date
 First-Class Mail or Standard Mail mailpieces with
exceptional or an alternative address format are not
required to meet Move Update requirements
(Note: mail is not forwarded)
• Or Current Resident
• Postal Customer
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Move Update Methods
Four Pre-Approved Methods:
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Ancillary Service Endorsements
ACS™, OneCode ACS®, and Full-Service ACS
NCOALink®
NCOALink® for Multiline Optical Character Readers
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Glossary
DPV® –
Identify inaccurate or incomplete addresses
LACSLink®– Locatable Address Conversion System. Automated process of
obtaining new address when the address has been changed by
the local planning authority or building management
SuiteLink® – Improves address assignments to business addresses by adding
known secondary (suite) numbers
AEC –
Address Element Correction. Corrects and standardizes address
elements on the worst addresses not resolved by CASS™
NCOALink® –National Change of Address. Aids mailers in identifying address
changes before mail enters the mail stream
ANKLink® – Attempted Not Known. For NCOALink® limited service providers
and end user mailers. ANKLink® is an enhancement to the existing
18 month NCOALink product. ANKLink provides an additional 30
months of COA information.
ACS™ – Cost effective means of obtaining accurate change of address
information
UAA –
Undeliverable As Addressed
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Questions?
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