Standardizing and Updating Addresses

Out-of-date or poorly entered addresses will negatively affect the process of matching address elements to the ILS in-house database. ILS offers duplicate removal, CASS Certifcation, United States Postal Service's National Change of Address, or formatting options to increase the success rate of our append services.

Coding Accuracy Support System^TM (CASS) Certificate

The CASS™ system is the USPS benchmark to measure the accuracy of Zip+4, 5-digit zip, and Carrier Route codes that appear on mailpieces. USPS form 3553 must be submitted with mailings brought to a USPS Bulk Mail facility.

Benefits of Certification

• Qualify for USPS® automation discounts

• Includes Delivery Point Validation (DPV)^TM processing, which confirms whether or not an address is a confirmed USPS delivery point.

• Mail deliverability increases by changing street addresses to their proper names. Example: "Rt 355" becomes "N Frederick Ave."

• Zip+4, carrier route (CRRT), or delivery point number (DPB) are appended to each address

The CASS program overwrites the original address and inserts an address error code when an update cannot be made. The file size and number of fields may vary from the original. We recommend each record have it's own unique identifier before being exported from your contact manager program.

National Change of Address (NCOA) Link^TM

The USPS reports an estimated 18-20% of the households and businesses in America move each year. Reduce undeliverable mail using the NCOALinkTM to find relocated individuals, families, and business. The NCOALinkTM data is created from self-reported USPS Change-of-Address Order forms. Address can be searched for changes made within the past 48 months. The average percentage that is updated is 10%.

Benefits of Checking Against the National Change of Address (NCOA)Link^TM

• Lower postage, printing and mail preparation costs

• Increase mail delivery by one to two days

• Meet USPS® requirements for First-Class Mail® discounts

• Assure that your mail pieces reach the right audience

The processed output file contains:

1. The standardized input address appended with the correct ZIP + 4, Address Error code, other postal values that result from the CASS™ (Coding Accuracy Support System) certification.

2. For each mailing address for which there is a match to the NCOALinkTM database, a standardized new address with 11-digit Delivery Point Barcode (DPBC) and standard return codes.

3. When a match is made, the following intelligence codes are appended: effective move date; the specific name and address utilized in the query that obtained the match; and the move type. The move type indicates whether the update was an individual, family, or business match.

4. For each mailing address for which there is no match, the unaltered input name and address remains intact along with any standard return codes that may be appropriate.

5. The carrier route information (CRRT) for updated addresses.

6. The urbanization name information, when applicable.

7. Delivery Point Validation (DPV) results for the input address.

8. LACSLink results, if requested (when available).

9. A summary report containing the statistics resulting from the NCOALinkTM process

Remove Duplicates

What makes a record a duplicate entry depends on your organization's goal. If your list contains registered voters, perhaps you want to narrow the list down to only one adult per household. If your list contains customers, perhaps you want to consolidate the number of times that person has been entered in the data set. ILS establishes links between records and puts them into three categories:

• Records with a similar name and/or address that appear to be duplicates based solely on name and/or address information
• Records with a similar name and/or address that cannot be ruled out as duplicates based solely on name and/or address information
• Records with a similar name and/or address that do not appear to be duplicates based solely on name and/or address information.

Standardize the Address Elements within a File:

• Parse out city, state, and zip if all in one field

• Remove duplicate addresses

• Parse out first, middle, last names & suffix into separate fields

• Genderize by first name (Ms; Mrs; Mr)

Contact us at (240) 243-4457 ext 121 for all questions regarding file formats, welcome letters, demographic selects, and prices. All lists are sent via email or through our secure site. ILS accepts Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

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