Like your pizza hot? … getting your physical address right makes all the difference in getting that pizza delivered before it’s cold. No one expects a telephone operator to connect their call; it is understood that you’ve got to use the correct digits when you’re ordering that pie. In the same way, physical address quality matters.
A complete, correct & current address is also critical for postal delivery of letters, catalogs, magazines, and parcels. Delivery failures are both costly and frustrating.
Think about how you maintain and manage your customer address records. During a single year, more than 10% of the citizen population and more than 20% of businesses change locations. Most of them file a forwarding address with the U.S. Postal Service. How do you find out about your customers’ new addresses? Do you have a process in place to catch address updates in your customer database?
Address changes don’t always require someone to physically move. Sometimes, when the street is renamed, often as result of ongoing efforts to improve 911 services (to make it easier for fire trucks and ambulances to find you in times of emergency), there is an address update.
Inspired by the growth in e-commerce, the Postal Service has introduced a new kind of PO Box® (aka a Competitive Post Office Box) that enables consumers to use a physical postal address for parcel delivery by FedEx, UPS or the USPS. This delivery address is different than where the customer lives or works. How do you handle this type of alternate and yet valid delivery address?
Improving customer address quality is time well spent. When the address isn’t found in the postal database, delivery is delayed and the cost to deliver goes up. Investigate how to integrate address verification tools in your workflow. Ask customers to let you know when their physical address changes.
Click2Mail standardizes the delivery address in your mailing lists, a process that compares it to the USPS’s database of valid delivery addresses. This can identify and correct many address issues, spotting misspelled street names for instance. The results of this standardization can be downloaded from your Click2Mail account, giving you the chance to research and make corrections as needed.
Not currently using Click2Mail’s mailing tools? The Postal Service offers both a lookup tool and an API to assist in cleaning up your mailing lists, a valuable endeavor to help improve your direct mail reach and reduce your mailing costs.
How do you keep your customer addresses up-to-date? Give Click2Mail a call or email support to learn more.
