National Change of Address
(NCOA)
Over 40 million Americans
change addresses annually, which creates formidable obstacles
in maintaining a high-quality mailing list that tracks customers
who move. The National Change of Address (NCOA) program
makes change-of-address (COA) information available to mailers
to help reduce undeliverable or duplicate mail pieces. NCOA
service is a comprehensive program that aids mailers in
identifying changes of addresses before mail enters the
mail stream.
Trylon can provide NCOA
service to you, whether as part of a merge/purge or while
preparing any mail file. In addition, Trylon can provide
importable files that can be used to directly update your
own database, including Raiser’s
Edge.
Input address information
provided by a mailer to Trylon is first standardized to
conform to USPS requirements, including the ZIP+4 code.Once
the address has been standardized and the ZIP+4 code applied,
an attempt is made to match the address against the NCOA
File, which contains approximately 152 million records or
48 months of permanent address changes. Address change information
is derived from the PS Form 3575, Change-of-Address Order,
filed by relocating postal customers. If an exact match
is made with the old address information in the NCOA File,
then the NCOA process provides the move information (new
address) to the mailer.
NCOA helps reduce undeliverable-as-addressed
mail by correcting input addresses prior to mailing. Since
1986, this service has saved mailers millions of dollars
that otherwise would have been wasted in materials and postage.
NCOA provides the
following benefits to mailers:
- Reduces undeliverable mail by providing the most current
address information for matches made to the NCOA File.
- Prevents duplicate mail pieces or re-mailings after
address corrections are received because the address correction
is applied prior to the mailing.
- Reduces mailer costs by reducing the number of undeliverable
and duplicate mail pieces by using most current address
information.
- Provides the opportunity for faster product/service
marketing through accurate mail delivery.
Mailers can cleanse their
mailing lists further by using the Nixie option. Nixie returns
a code indicating a match was close but not good enough
to meet the strict USPS matching guidelines. The nixie code
indicates the reason a match could not be made with the
NCOA file, and a mailer can investigate the address record
and provide necessary corrections. A no-match to the NCOA
file does NOT return the new address - the Nixie Option
indicates why.
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