Save money. Save time. Clean your address data. Reduce waste. Get your mail delivered faster.

Address Change Service

We’re very excited about the many benefits of the Address Change Service (ACS) offered by the Postal Service.

Here’s how it works: After your mailing drops, the USPS provides any change-of-address and other non-delivery information to you electronically. This reduces the amount of returned mail and the time and cost of dealing with manual address corrections to your database.

You save money by removing bad address records from your mailing lists. And corrected addresses can be delivered faster in upcoming mailings. A win-win for you and the USPS. ACS is very inexpensive and is available for First Class Mail, Parcels, Periodicals and Marketing Mail.

Address Element Correction

Address Element Correction (AEC) is an additional service which identifies addresses that are missing address elements or contain incorrect address elements that require additional handling. These problems can delay delivery or even make delivery impossible.

AEC corrects addresses through computer-automated processes and can involve evaluation by local delivery offices if needed. Bad addresses are turned into accurate addresses (complete and standardized for full automation) or identified as potentially undeliverable. This service is available for a modest fee.

How a Nonprofit Uses ACS and AEC

Our client has a large volume, national direct mail program with over 20 mailings per year. Every year, they use ACS on four renewal mailings to keep their donor address data as accurate as possible. As mailing results trickle in over a 12-week period, the USPS sends our client a weekly electronic report with change-of-address information and other reasons for non-delivery. These updates are then made to their donor database.

MMI sets up the specific IM barcode on each mailing that provides the instructions to the USPS to perform the ACS process. MMI then assists with the back and forth exchange of data between our client, their data management partner and the USPS, making the process efficient and easy for our client.

We also advise on which mailings are the best candidates for using ACS. For example, for this client, we recommended that ACS is especially effective for mailings further out from their NCOA processing date. This way, more potential address changes are captured during this additional correction process.

This client also uses the Address Element Correction (AEC) service five times per year to fix questionable addresses that have inaccurate or missing elements.

Several thousand records each year are either corrected or removed from our client’s mailings through these automated services – saving money, avoiding time-intensive manual processes, and eliminating waste. And corrected addresses get delivered without delays.

ACS and in some cases AEC services are beneficial to both large and small mailers. Setting up ACS and AEC with the USPS can seem a bit intimidating. And the backend operations of updating your CRM systems may seem challenging too.

MMI Direct can work with you to come up with the best approach for your team, processes and systems. We’re here to help! Contact us today to get started.

Larry Bettinger is Director of Data Processing at MMI Direct. Over the past 30 years Larry has developed a deep expertise in USPS data hygiene products and services. He assists our clients in setting up data hygeine protocols to maximize mail delivery and control expenses.