What are Bad Addresses What Do You

What are “Bad” Addresses & What Do You Do With Them – Exactly? National Postal Forum April 11 – 14, 2010 Wanda L. Key, Manager, Address Quality, USPS® Wanda Senne, National Director Postal Development, World Marketing® 1

QUALITY ADDRESSING PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATE This session qualifies as one of the four Addressing sessions in addition to the Monday, April 12 th General Session needed for the Address Quality Specialist Certificate! 2

Topics § § § Cost of Bad Addressing Overview of AEC / AEC II® Fees and Payment Requesting Processing Results Summary AEC II, CASS Certified, Delivery Force Knowledge, DPV, USPS, and ZIP + 4 are trademarks of the United States Postal Service 3

Can You Recognize A Bad Address? 4

America is on the Move and Growing! 1. 08 million new addresses New York Almost 44 million Americans move New Jersey Pennsylvania 150. 5 million residences, businesses and PO boxes 5

USPS® determined up to 23. 6% of all mail contains common addressing errors § Directional/suffix missing 6. 0% § Street name/number incorrect/invalid 5. 9% § ZIP™ Code/city incorrect 4. 8% § Apt number, rural box number missing 4. 5% § Addressee moved 2. 4% 23. 6% 6

2004 Christensen UAA Report Old Address Return 51. 3¢ / pc. 1. 60 Billion pieces $822. 5 Million x 9. 724 Billion pieces $1. 856 Billion Waste 4. 4¢ / pc. 6. 136 Billion pieces $269. 8 Million Forward 21. 3¢ / pc. 1. 985 Billion pieces $421. 9 Million New Address 7

Who Can Benefit? § § § Lists with a high percentage of CASS™ error codes § Increase number of pieces at automation postage discounts § Improve deliverability Improve merge/purge results if using multiple and/or varying list sources Older lists Lists created by manual entry or addresses captured from cards or sweepstakes Small retail trying to make addresses “valuable” without buying new lists 8

AEC Success Story § § § National staffing company 140, 000 corporate owned business addresses First mailing (after CASS™ and NCOALink®) § 40, 000 returned pieces UAA § 35, 000 manual data entry § $6, 000 keying and file costs Second mailing file passed thru AEC § 3, 000 returned pieces UAA Saved manual data entry cost and, Improved project timeline by 2 weeks 9

What Should You Look For? Records that should pass AEC/AECII will show here. 10

What Should You Look For? E 412 – possible street misspelling – AEC and AECII® E 422 and E 427 may be misplaced or missing directional – AEC and AECII E 421 – invalid primary numbers – AECII may be able to correct 11

What Should You Look For? E 601 – invalid primary number – AECII® candidate Total of 1, 584 more addresses that will receive your mail!! On average, the AEC correction rate is 33. 4%. 12

AEC Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT 4546 B-10 EL CAMINO REAL PMB #375 LOS ALTOS CA 94022 4546 EL CAMINO REAL STE B 10 PMB #375 LOS ALTOS CA 94022 -1069 13

AEC Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT ROPE FERRY RD/RT. 155 MILLSTONE POWER STA WATERFORD CT 06385 155 ROPE FERRY RD WATERFORD CT 06385 -2625 14

AEC II® Service An Enhancement to the AEC Program § Records are first processed through AEC logic § Addresses that remain uncoded are compared against the AEC II historical file that looks for previous resolutions of the same name and address § Addresses that remain uncoded after AEC and AEC II historical file comparison are sent to the responsible delivery unit for resolution based on Delivery Force Knowledge™ 15

AEC II® Service How does the local delivery unit resolve the address? § AEC II leverages Delivery Force Knowledge™ § Delivery Units typically know their customer’s address and can identify necessary corrections § Indicator provided to identify when the address cannot be resolved 16

AEC II® Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT JONES PET SHOP 3770 VIA CAMPENA S OCEANSIDE CA 92057 JONES PET SHOP 3770 VISTA CAMPANA S UNIT 2 OCEANSIDE CA 92057 -8237 17

AEC II® Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT BROOKLYN’S SCHOOL OF DANCE 13421 ARRIER AVE APT 204 ONEIDA TOWERS 1 ONEIDA NY 13421 BROOKLYN’S SCHOOL OF DANCE 226 FARRIER AVE APT 204 ONEIDA NY 13421 -1665 18

AEC II® Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT PRUITT FINANCIAL 27185 SOUTH 2500 EAST VERNAL UT 84078 PRUITT FINANCIAL 2718 S 2500 E VERNAL UT 84078 -9107 19

AEC II® Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT MILTON FLORIST 3258 HIDEWAY LANE MIDDLEBURG FL 32068 MILTON FLORIST 3852 HIDEAWAY LN MIDDLEBURG FL 32068 -3867 20

AEC II® Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT MEAD LAWN AND GARDEN 5814 SR 6 W JASPER FL 32052 MEAD LAWN AND GARDEN 5814 STATE ROAD 6 W JASPER FL 32052 -4684 21

AEC II® Service — Examples INPUT OUTPUT DIAMOND CONSULTING 105 PARKER DR CHARLESTON WV 25309 DIAMOND CONSULTING RR 8 BOX 330 CHARLESTON WV 25309 -9766 22

AEC II® Service What if the address I have is actually a correct address but it still doesn’t match the USPS® data? § Address will be returned marked “correct-as-shown” without charge § § The new address was not yet in the USPS® database Where the mailing address is a P. O. Box™ style address instead of a street address, record is returned marked with “P. O. Box Indicator” without charge § P. O. Box addresses not provided due to privacy 23

AEC II® Service Typical Performance AEC II processing provides an average 95% resolution rate Address Corrected *Historical File Match *P. O. Box™ Delivery Exclusion Address Uncorrectable (ADNE) 52. 74% *Corrected to Highrise Default 2. 02% 5. 63% *AP/FPO Military Post Office . 82% 4. 72% *Auto Correct 12. 56% *Invalid ZIP™ Code . 11%. 06% 24 *Correct As Shown be impacted for each file submitted. *Indicates no charge 6. 01% 1. 36% *Invalid Format All resolutions may not

25

AEC/AEC II® Fees & Payment § AEC and AEC II are prepaid services § AEC processing costs $15 per thousand records § AEC processing fees are calculated per 1, 000 records and prorated for increments less than a complete thousand § A minimum fee of $15 is charged for all files containing less than 1, 000 records 26

AEC/AEC II® Fees & Payment § AEC processing is required to receive AEC II service AEC II processing fees are calculated on the number of resolved records returned to the customer § AEC II processing costs 25¢ per resolution § A minimum fee of $25 is charged for all files submitted (in addition to AEC fees) § Each resolved record over the first 100 will be charged the current established fee § 27

Requesting AEC/AEC II® Processing § Submit non-foreign addresses that do not DPV® confirm § Do not submit packed or software-compressed data or records with comma-delimited fields § Submit payment and a complete request form to the NCSC § A complete request form and payment in the form of a credit card or USPS® CAPS account must be faxed to (901) 681 -4409 before electronic files can be processed 28

Requesting AEC/AEC II® Processing § Request form and payment can be submitted in one of two ways: § AEC/AEC II Processing Request Form — accompanies each file submitted for processing. Payment is accepted by credit card or USPS® CAPS account. § AEC/AEC II Processing Request for Vendors Form — submitted once and is applicable for each file submitted thereafter. § § Vendors are required to have a CAPS account and to include a header record as the first record in their file (discussed later). CAPS allows Mailers to conduct business with CAPS Service Center Reps electronically. To obtain a CAPS account, visit caps. usps. gov or call (650) 377 -1334 29

Requesting AEC/AEC II® Processing § All AEC and AEC II files are treated equally and processed on a first-in, first-out basis § However, additional processing time is needed for files submitted on CD/DVD versus FTP 30

Upload – Web Instructions 31

Upload – Web Instructions 32

Download – Web Instructions 33

Download – Web Instructions 34

AEC Header Record Layout 35

AEC Input File Layout 36

AEC Processing Results § The returned address will contain: The standardized delivery address if resolved; if unresolved the data fields will be blank. § Delivery addresses are parsed into individual address elements § For Rural Route addresses, the term “RR #” will appear in the Street Name field, the word “Box” will appear in the Suffix field, and the box number will appear in the Primary Number field § For PO Box addresses, the words “PO Box” will appear in the Street Name field, and the box number will be listed in the Primary Number field § § The original, unaltered record as submitted. 37

AEC II® Processing Results § Resolved records will be placed in the customer’s secured folder on the RIBBS® website weekly § § CAPS customers will receive resolved records daily Customers may access and download their resolved records at their convenience § Files will remain in the customer folder for 60 days 38

Tools and Resources § AEC and AEC II® Calculator http: //ribbs. usps. gov/aec/documents/tech/guides/AEC_calculator. xls § AEC and AEC II User Guide http: //ribbs. usps. gov/aec/documents/tech_guides/AEC_AECII_UG. PDF § For everything you want to know about AEC and AEC II, but were afraid to ask in public… http: //ribbs. usps. gov/index. cfm? page=aec 39

Summary § The quality of your address data directly affects the deliverability of your mail! § AEC and AEC II® are two of the most valuable and underutilized tools available at minimal costs § USPS® is committed to ongoing address hygiene improvements to enhance the value of mail – are you? § We’re so committed, we want you to try 1, 000 addresses with AEC and AEC II (combined) free of charge. Please pick up a CD before leaving this seminar to take advantage of this offer! 40

Questions? ? 41

For More Information www. usps. com/ncsc ribbs. usps. gov Customer Care 1 -800 -238 -3150 42

Knowledge Validation Question 1: Answer 1: Question 2: Answer 2: Question 3: Answer 3: Missing directional/suffix errors account for 6% of all common addressing errors? True AEC II® provides an average 65% resolution rate. False. AEC II provides an average 95% resolution rate. AEC II uses Delivery Force Knowledge™ to correct bad addresses. True 43

Speaker Schedule Monday How Government Agencies Use Address Quality to Better Serve the Community Gail Milton/Mike Sexson – Period 5, 10: 00 am – 11: 00 am Your Software is Talking – Are You Listening? Jim Wilson/Chris Lien – Period 6, 11: 00 am – 12: 00 pm The Essentials of Great Addressing Gail Milton/Laine Ropson – Period 7, 2: 00 pm – 3: 00 pm Tuesday What are “Bad” Addresses & What Do You Do With Them – Exactly? Wanda Key/Wanda Senne – Period 10, 10: 00 am – 11: 00 am Wednesday Move It or Lose It Charles Hunt/Marty Mc. Guire – Period 15, 10: 00 am – 11: 00 am Stump the Experts with Your Undeliverable Mail Jim Wilson/Charles Hunt – Period 17, 3: 30 pm – 4: 30 pm