Enterprise Address Management

Getting to the root of the problem – for efficiency and savings

 Pitney Bowes Business Insight has posted a new webinar series on Enterprise Address Management  and getting the most from the intelligence in your data. You’ll want to check it out. Here’s why….

Issues with address accuracy are costly. More often than not, they represent opportunities lost, compliance requirements missed, and strains on customer relations.  Yet, data challenges have continued to plague businesses – and, as the layers of different modes of communication and the complexity of business offerings grow, accuracy of data has become more difficult to manage.

People move. Addresses get input incorrectly. Even one of the age-old fail-safes for address correction, the National Change of Address services (NCOA) does not cover it all. In fact, recent statistics indicate that while almost 40 million people filing a change of address every year with the USPS, a further 40% choose not to file any forwarding address details with the USPS at all. What’s more, the number of different customer touch points has been multiplying faster than ever, bringing in data updates through all sorts of channels all across the organization.

It’s really hard to keep up with these changes, yet very costly not to do so.

New changes are on the horizon.

Thanks in large part to the new Intelligent Mail^® barcode and stricter mandates required for USPS®, postal discounts, organizations can now maximize their postal discounts, meet their compliance requirements and stay better connected with customers and prospects.  You can too.

A successful Enterprise Address Management solution is integrated into the workflow of customer data after it has been processed through USPS, in-house, and/or third- address standardization, verification and update tools.   The address updates returned from these tools drive a workflow that will ultimately update the address back to the source in your organization – and correlates with the unique Intelligent Mail barcode, a common denominator across all your mail communications.

The recipe for success

The methodology for true “Enterprise Address Management” is this:

1. Take advantage of the intelligence the Intelligent Mail barcode provides – USPS’ standardized, machine-readable barcodes can provide a wealth of information. The Intelligent Mail barcode is required by May, 2011 to enable postal discounts when the POSTNET barcode is discontinued.
2. Incorporate move updates – while NCOA doesn’t capture every move, it is still a huge source of mover information. Further address accuracy can be achieved by routing both NCOA and 3^rd party move-update information back to the data’s original source.
3. Apply address validation – CASS solutions just keep getting better. They help to correct errors, complete incomplete information, and can help to standardize data across your organization so everyone can get the same view of the same customer.
4. Ensure that systems throughout your organization all are adopted internally –enterprise wide – by essentially everyone who touches customer data. This is the root of good data – everyone is on the same page.

With the right expertise, these fundamental steps can be successfully combined to ensure increased address accuracy – systemically across your organization.

Why is this so important?

Better data yields cost savings.  It enables companies to capture the maximum postal discounts.  Remember: if you do not meet certain address-quality thresholds, the portion of the mail that exceeds the threshold will be assessed an extra seven cents per piece. Better data can also help you cut down on return mail – and the costs of processing, resending and all the hidden costs associated with this.

The Intelligent Mail barcode can also provide detailed tracking data on items you send your customers – and that information can provide substantial benefits. From optimizing call center staffing, to reducing call volumes; managing risks to predicting and improving your cash flow –you stay better connected with your customers and substantially increase efficiency of customer communications.

I’ve just scratched the surface on all the benefits of Enterprise Address Management – Please check out our webinar series  and this Enterprise Address Management white paper  to learn more.  The white paper provides insight into 21 different ways your business can benefit from Enterprise Address Management closed-loop methodologies and find out why leading organizations are utilizing Enterprise Address Management from Pitney Bowes Business Insight.