Make the Smart Move – Address the State of Your Data
When was the last time you moved? Did you file for a change of address? When you finally settled into your new home, did you continue to receive a previous resident’s mail? Catalogs that do not relate to your lifestyle, magazine incentives to re-subscribe, postcard reminders for Scruffy’s vaccination! … Who’s Scruffy? This mixed up mail is a symptom of senders having an outdated and unverified database. When important materials reach an unintended address, it could cost businesses more than just the postage of a letter.
Moving is Neither Here nor There … It’s Everywhere
America, in particular, is one of the most mobile countries in the world. The USPS processed roughly 36.8 million Change of Address (COA) requests in 2017, of which 96% were from residential customers. An average of 40 million Americans move each year, about 15% of the entire U.S. population. If businesses do not update their databases to account for customers’ ever-changing addresses, the result is costly, undeliverable as addressed (UAA) mail.
Costly Consequences of Muddled Mailing
The USPS identifies roughly 6.8 billion pieces of UAA mail each year which forces them to either forward, return or treat mail as waste. Continuing to send mail to incorrect addresses, costs the mailing industry $20 billion every year. Those costs are then passed down to mailers through UAA fees and penalties. Along with wasted resources and unwanted costs, inaccurate address data could cost your business lost sales, lost customers and even unpaid bills or invoices. It’s also important to mention lost opportunities when businesses are unable to reach the right person at the right time.
Making the Smart Move
Businesses, nonprofit organizations, health offices or any mass mailer can avoid these costly mistakes with proper data updating tools. A data cleansing solution, like Melissa’s SmartMover, will update your database regularly and provide current addresses in the U.S. or Canada. SmartMover provides NCOALink processing using USPS CASS Certified™ address correction for the U.S. And, as one of only a handful of Canada Post’s licensees, Melissa can perform Canada Post NCOA™ processing for Canadian addresses. Processing your mailing lists through SmartMover will also meet the USPS Move-Update standard that is required in order to benefit from postal discounts.
Saving Money by Sprucing Up Mailing Lists
A tool like SmartMover makes it easy to cut down the costs of UAA mail caused by clients’ changing addresses. Maintaining a clean and verified contact database is the key to successfully delivering products, services and marketing while continuing to be in contact with your customers. Make sure your software is up to the task of maintaining clean records of client contact information, otherwise you could experience those costly symptoms caused by dirty address data!