|
Address Hygiene
Anchor offers several Address Hygiene Services, that when used alone or in a group improve
your ability to identify and contact your target audience. The following database processes and Anchor
Services enable you to perform data consolidation and standardization and hygiene on your name and address data.
Data Consolidation and Standardization
Anchor uses state-of-the-art software to ensure that your addresses are standardized to meet the latest
United States Postal Service® requirements.
This process includes:
- Validation and correction of street, city and state.
- Street prefix, suffix, and secondary address components are standardized.
- ZIP+4® Codes are enhanced, added if missing, and corrected.
- United States Postal Service® Carrier Route Codes are added.
- United States Postal Service® Line-of-Travel data is added.
- Delivery Point Bar Code data is added.
- Undeliverable and non-forwardable addresses are identified and tagged.
Once the basic standardization is completed. Several optional suppression processes are
available. The benefits of this type of processing are numerous, ranging from decreasing inefficient
prospecting costs to increasing customer satisfaction. Other reasons to perform suppression processing
may include legal restrictions, investor obligations, and self-regulatory privacy obligations as outlined by
the Direct Marketing Association. Our main suppression options include the:
National Change of Address (NCOALink™)
NCOALink™ improves deliverability by providing new addresses for households, individuals and businesses that have moved.
The NCOALink™ update process compares each source record to the United States Postal Service® National Change of
Address database. The records that match are returned with the new address of the individual, family or business that moved, type of
move and move effective date, or a flag noting that no forwarding address is available. The NCOALink™ database currently has
over 110+ million records for a 48 month period. Caution should still be taken in changing the address of
record on files if they are from an operational system, since your address data may be more current than the United
States Postal Service®.
More Info...
MaxCOA
MaxCOA is an Anchor Computer change-of-address solution based on a change of address database containing approximately
350,000,000 addresses belonging to 150,000,000 individuals. Each name has a current address. MaxCOA provides change of address information for up to 60 months. MaxCOA should be used in addition to
NCOALink™. The two processes will greatly increase the number of moves you can identify.
It is estimated that you will identify 50% more moves by using MaxCOA after your NCOALink™ processing. If you
‘moved’ 50,000 people as a result of NCOALink™ processing, we are projecting that by using our MaxCOA file you will correct
an additional 25,000 addresses.
More Info...
Address Correction Request (ACR)
A frequent question asked is "I just used NCOALink™, why am I receiving hard copy returns on endorsed mail?"
As mentioned above, NCOALink™ uses
strict computer matching logic. A postal employee may identify address changes that NCOALink™ may have missed. So, it is
prudent to use "Address Correction Requested" on a house file during the course of the year. ACR is controlled by postal clerks
who can be subjective in forwarding mail pieces. Using all of these methods will provide an updated file and ultimately better
deliverablity. Determining which records to change and what to do with them, are decisions that need to be made
based on your own business rules.
More Info...
Address Change Service (ACS)
While ACR is initiated manually at the postal carrier level, the
United States Postal Service® also has an automated, electronic method of correction. This
provides for more timely updates of master files, eliminates the need for manual data entry of address
information and can save up to $0.30 per address change over the ACR method. Determining which records to change and what to
do with them, are decisions that need to be made based on your own business rules.
More Info...
Pre-Sort Accuracy Validation and Evaluation (PAVE™)
PAVE™ is a voluntary program in that the United States Postal Service® provides testing for certain categories of presort
software and hardware products to determine their accuracy in sorting address information according to the United States
Postal Service Domestic Mail Manual standards.
More Info...
Delivery Sequence File - Second Generation (DSF2™)
DSF2™ helps identify business and residential addresses. It also corrects addresses to meet United States Postal Service® delivery standards,
improving delivery of your mail. For example, it can help reduce direct mailing costs by not mailing to those
addresses that are vacant during certain times of the year. The step takes a closer look at the quality of the addresses,
as well as what types of additional measures need to be taken to reach the 100% coding goal of the United States Postal
Service®.
DSF2™ contains every deliverable address served by the United States Postal Service® and provides you with a high quality
address matching service. DSF2™ categorizes addresses as city-state, rural route, PO Box, and Highway Contract. Each address
is standardized and contains the correct carrier route code, ZIP+4® code, vacancy code (if the delivery point has been empty
for more than 90 days), delivery type code (single family dwelling unit, multi-family dwelling unit, business, etc). DSF2™
does not contain names or change of address information.
DSF2™ is one of the USPS® approved methods of determining qualification for saturation mailings. If a match to the DSF2™ is
not possible, that record will be flagged with the reason code for the non-match. It may then be possible to correct the
address, resulting in eligibility for lower postal rates and improved deliverability.
It is recommended that you perform DSF2™ processing at least every six months to ensure quality and deliverability.
More Info...
Customized Address Element Correction
For those records flagged above
as non-codeable, additional initiatives, such as outbound telemarketing, postcard mailings, personal contacts,
or order entry screen flags at customer service centers should be developed
to see how many non-codeable address records can be fixed. Even though these initiatives
seem intensive, by the time you are at this stage, the pool of non-codeable records will be relatively
small. Determining which records to change, what to do with them, and which additional
initiatives to invest in to fix the non-codeable records, are decisions that need to be
made based on your own business rules.
Computer Delivery Sequencing (CDS)
CDS is a five-digit ZIP code-based customer product that provides and
updates delivery sequence address information by carrier route for qualified companies through
a computerized medium. You must initially qualify for CDS information through the procedures described
in the USPS®’ Domestic Mail Manual (DMM™), Module A, section 920. You must have between 90%
and 110% of all mailable addresses within a ZIP code that you are trying to get CDS qualified.
Once initially qualified, delivery sequence address information for the qualified five-digit ZIP code area will be
made available via electronic media.
More Info...
Locatable Address Conversion System (LACSLink™)
Like NCOALink™, LACSLink™ is a licensed service available only from NCOALink™ licensees of the United States
Postal Service®. The LACSLink™ system is a database containing names and addresses that have been
compiled for areas that have undergone a conversion from rural to city-style addresses. In
many cases, the communities are changing their rural addresses to city-state addresses for
better 911 address locatablity. The LACSLink™ file contains approximately 6 million addresses.
As more addresses are converted, the potential for having both the rural and city-style addresses
on a database exists. Since consolidation (merge-purge) processing won’t necessarily catch these, it is
recommended that LACSLink™ be performed prior to the consolidation build. The United States
Postal Service® will only deliver to the old address for one year after an address has gone
through LACSLink™ conversion.
More Info...
CASS™ Express
CASS™ (Coding Accuracy Support System) Express service provided by Anchor improves the accuracy of 5-digit ZIP, ZIP+4®, carrier route, and
delivery point bar codes. CASS™ Express includes address standardization, ZIP correction, ZIP+4® appending, carrier-route coding, appending
delivery point bar code data, error messages/footnotes, a CASS™ report (United States Postal Service® form 3553), and an NDI report. Anchor
updates the ZIP+4® directory on a monthly basis to provide the most accurate data available.
According to the United States Postal Service® Domestic Mail Manual, some of the mailpiece requirements for automation rates are:
- Bear a delivery address that includes the correct ZIP code, ZIP+4® code, or numeric equivalent to the delivery point barcode (DPBC).
- Addresses must be sufficiently complete to enable matching to the current USPS® ZIP+4® File when used with CASS™-certified address matching software.
- An address must include a firm name when necessary to obtain a match with the finest level of ZIP+4® code in the USPS® ZIP+4® File.
- If an address contains a firm name assigned a unique ZIP+4® code in the USPS® ZIP+4® File, the unique ZIP+4® code must be used.
- Addresses must include the correct house number, street name, predirectional, postdirectional, and suffix that are input to obtain a match with the current USPS® ZIP+4® File.
- If a secondary address designator (suite, apt, etc.) is shown in the address, the mailpiece must show the appropriate ZIP+4® code representing the range for that secondary address as contained in the current USPS® ZIP+4® File.
- If a rural route or highway contract route box number is included in the address, the mailpiece must show the appropriate ZIP+4® code representing the range for that box number as contained in the current USPS® ZIP+4® File.
- A post office box address must contain a post
office box number that can be exactly matched with the USPS® ZIP+4® File
in effect.
CASS™ Express as provided by Anchor assists the mailer in satisfying the United States Postal Service® requirements as outlined above.
Deceased Processing
Deceased processing enables mailers to eliminate deceased individuals from their mailings prior to a promotion, and prevents the annoying of members of the deceased's household with unwanted mail. Our file contains 40 million records relating
to deceased individuals. Unique to this suppression file is Anchor's Deceased Probability Index methodology which will enable mailers to more intelligently identify deceased names and allow for a better determination if a name should be suppressed.
The mailer will benefit from an improved response rate, lower costs, and an improvement of the company's image by minimizing mailings to deceased individuals.
An original or faxed Deceased Processing Agreement Form
must be received by Anchor prior to processing.
For additional information, please see: Deceased Suppression Processing-The Benefit Potential to Database Managers.
|
E@anchorcomputer.com
.jpg)
