US Postal Service’s Address Change Database Doesn’t Measure Up

NEW ALBANY, Ind. - Sept. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Up to 46% of constituents remained unreachable after a standard National Change Of Address database (NCOA) cleanup, found the team at Updentity.com on a study of 100,000 consumer contact records from real world organizations.  The accuracy and quality of databases limits the effectiveness and profitability of every organization’s operation with direct mail campaigns, customer/donor relations, fundraisers, billing, and constituent analysis.  The Updentity team determined that NCOA only reduced undeliverable addresses from an average of 18% to 12%.

Moreover, while the NCOA database contains approximately 160 million permanent address change registrations, it does not contain data for changes in phone numbers, email addresses, social media accounts, employment, or consumer segmentation.  According to Updentity CEO Benjamin Ashpole, “NCOA updates alone leave much opportunity lost.”

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) claims that over 43 million Americans move each year, which creates automatic annual reduction in accuracy of mailing lists and is a major cause of undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail.  The NCOA database, maintained by the USPS, helps reduce UAA mail by identifying and updating the addresses of people and businesses that have moved.¹

However, it has been estimated that up to 40 percent of all moves are never even reported to the NCOA, drastically reducing the effectiveness of this method of maintaining database quality and accuracy.²  NCOA is even more limited, as at any given time the database only contains the address changes filed with the USPS over the most recent 18 to 48 months. As such, if a constituent or customer has been lost outside of this timeframe, their contact information won’t be found and updated through the NCOA.

To illustrate the wastage in just printing and mailing costs alone, Ashpole uses the IRS as an example. An audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) estimated that in FY 2009, approximately 10 percent of the 200 million pieces of mail sent by the IRS in FY2009, was returned to the IRS at an estimated cost of $57.9 million. The TIGTA indicated in the audit that 37 percent of that returned mail was undeliverable due to bad addresses.³

“Despite the scale of their business and budget, any executive can quickly see that the cost of bad data eats away at the bottom line; and that’s just the cost of undeliverable mail. Poor data quality is a source of revenue drain through loss from wasted postage, wasted man hours, wasted printing, and in lost opportunities such as sales or in donor gifts,” Ashpole concluded.

According to Harte-Hanks, a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, at least 25 percent of a typical company’s data is inaccurate.⁴ Incomplete or missing phone numbers stagnate telethons and customer calls; inaccurate email addresses make an email campaign unsuccessful and an e-newsletter a wasted investment; and social media campaign consequences remain unexplored.Ovum, a global analyst firm, estimated that poor data quality costs U.S. businesses at least 30% of revenues—a staggering $700 billion per year.⁵

Poorly managed constituent data can also take a toll on an organization’s reputation.  Data quality is a business issue that should be the concern of top executives, according to Updentity® president and CEO, Benjamin Ashpole. Unfortunately, executives look at databases, and the quality of the contact information in those databases, as a necessary evil in conducting business.  However, states Ashpole, “Data integrity and accuracy is a means to find and nurture customers, donors, and volunteers. It is a way to extend budgets through saved postage, printing, staff time. Inferior data quality isn’t just a problem for the IT department.”

“Updentity’s database, compiled from more than 12 years of change history, is more complete and diverse than sources such as the NCOA. We provide additional checks to make sure addresses can actually be used, even if a change/update is not available,” says Ashpole. “Updentity can identify addresses that are valid but are either vacant or have not been active in the last 90 days. We offer a guarantee to continue to check for correct data, for addresses and otherwise, free of charge when a customer reports inaccurate information.”

About Updentity

Updentity (http://www.updentity.com) facilitates stronger communication and improved relations with their constituents by keeping databases complete and current.  Updentity is integrated with an ever growing number of CRM’s for maximum ease of use.  An organization can be confident they are reaching out to the right people with Updentity. That, simply, delivers better results.

Updentity’s mission is to keep the world’s data up to date.  Through Updentity, businesses and organizations can help eliminate budget wastage, find donors and customers, and increase the success of direct mail, email campaigns, and fundraisers through use of Updentity databases that include over 200 million U.S. residents, over 16 million U.S. cell phone numbers, and 43 million world-wide business contacts.

Updentity provides significant detail and history that surpasses information from the census and National Change Of Address because it uses the power of the web, social media, third-party sources to keep the information alive and constantly up to date. Updentity works seamlessly with software such as Blackbaud® Raiser’s Edge, email marketing programs like Constant Contact®, social media such as Facebook®, and continues to work with additional programs and applications.

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1.        https://www.melissadata.com/whitepaper/whitepaper-ncoa-undelieverable.pdf

2.        https://www.melissadata.com/whitepaper/whitepaper-ncoa-undelieverable.pdf

3.        http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/files/ExecSummary_2010ARC.pdf

4.        http://www.trilliumsoftware.com/home/partners/library_detail.aspx?id=3002

5.        http://www.personallypb.com/pdf/data-quality/%E2%80%8E

MEDIA CONTACT:

Brandy Coomer, Chief Interaction Manager

Updentity

574-387-2274

brandy.coomer@updentity.com  www.updentity.com