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October 28, 2009
Who cares about seven cents?
by Cynthia Williams
Cross-posted at Pitney Bowes Business Insight
News that the USPS will begin assessing fees in January 2010 on mailers who fail the new address quality audits has left mail operation heads scrambling to make sure they are in compliance with all Move Update requirements.
After all, the cost of non-compliance - up to seven cents per piece on a portion of your mailing - can easily bust your budget, especially at a time when everyone is looking for ways to reduce expenses.
Details on the latest USPS effort to curtail Undeliverable-as-Addressed Mail can be found in our earlier post and white paper, The Truth About Move Update. This white paper outlines how samples will be audited and the calculations by which fees will be assessed when mailers exceed the 30% error-rate threshold. Today, however, we want to discuss why it's important not only that you comply - but also how you comply.
After all, if the goal were simply to save seven cents, you could save that and more simply by not sending the mail altogether. But you can't - because the communications you send have a purpose. They help you connect with customers and prospects, collect revenues, meet government regulations and sell products.
While that may sound like motherhood and apply pie, we were surprised to hear about a mailer who decided to outsource move update compliance to a third-party because he felt it was the simplest, easiest way to save seven cents. The USPS was happy because addresses were updated and the piece was delivered. But at the end of the day - the information about those customer moves never makes its way back to the company.
Month after month, bad records are corrected, but the company fails to recognize new opportunities associated with these moves. They fail to target offers correctly because their data is wrong. Eventually, when the customer's "change of address" notice expires, they simply lose touch altogether.
This can occur when you don't receive the new address information, but the same poor result can occur when you have the data and don't update your records. You see - getting and using the data about a customer's move is worth far more than seven cents.
But we understand that it needs to be simple and easy, too. That's why so many mailers are excited about our new VeriMove Access solution. It's an "on demand" offering which means there are no software agreements. No changes to your underlying systems. And no need to acquire and pay for the USPS NCOALink license normally associated with on-site updates. Your addresses get updated and you get to keep the new data.
If you're interested about closing the loop, you'll also want to learn more about ways you can automate the cumbersome, manual process of correcting customer addressesturning the codes generated from NCOA and ACS into actionable information.
It's a cost-effective way to keep track of customer moves. And yeah, it can help you save that seven cents, too.
Posted by PBBI at October 28, 2009 12:30 PM
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