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

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

Address Change 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 that 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 Address Correction Services

Our colleagues at MMI Direct are pros at helping our clients use these USPS Services. Here’s how they helped a client with a large volume, national direct mail program of over 20 mailings per year.

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

MMI Direct also advises on which mailings are the best candidates for using ACS. For example, for this client, it was recommended that ACS would be 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 the 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.

Reach out to us and working together with our colleagues at MMI Direct, we’ll develop the best approach for your team, processes and systems.