Return Mail Processing Solutions: Manage Undeliverable Mail

Is your return mail piling up and consuming valuable time and resources? Instead of sorting through piles of undeliverable mail, outsourcing your return mail processing can streamline this task and reduce the burden on your team. By partnering with a return mail processing service, you can efficiently manage UAA mail, cut down on extra postage costs, and ensure compliance with USPS Move Update requirements.

This solution not only saves you time but also helps maintain an accurate and up-to-date customer address database, eliminating the hassle of return mail management.

What is Return Mail?

Returned mail consists of mailpieces that are undeliverable as addressed. The mail is usually returned because of outdated, inaccurate or insufficient address data. This can adversely affect businesses that deliver a high volume of mail, such as those in the financial services, insurance, healthcare and utility industries.

By utilizing returned mail management and making the necessary changes to your address databases, you can ensure more mail reaches the hands of its intended recipients and cut operational expenses while strengthening customer relationships.

Why is Mail Marked Undeliverable-As-Addressed?

1. The recipient is missing address details or is in the wrong format
2. The recipient no longer lives at the same address
3. The contact info of the recipient has changed, but hasn’t been updated in your database.
4. Insufficient postage

What Does Undeliverable as Addressed Mean?

Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) means that the postal mail could not be delivered to the intended recipient at the address written on the mailpiece. This typically occurs due to one of the following reasons:

• The addressee has moved and did not submit a change of address form with the USPS, so there is no forwarding address on file.
• The address on the mailpiece is incomplete, incorrect, or illegible, lacking crucial details like the street number, street name, city, state, or ZIP code.
• The address is for a vacant residence or business that is not currently occupied.
• The intended recipient is deceased or unknown at that address.
• There is no mailbox or mail receptacle at the address to receive deliveries.
• The recipient refused to accept the mailpiece or pay any necessary postage.

This can adversely affect businesses that deliver a high volume of mail, such as those in the financial services, insurance, healthcare and utility industries. By utilizing returned mail management and making the necessary changes to your address databases, you can ensure more mail reaches the hands of its intended recipients and cut operational expenses while strengthening customer relationships.

The Substantial Cost of Poor Return Mail Management

Each piece of returned mail creates unneeded expenses: lost postage, materials, staff time for manual returned mail handling, and the unseen costs of delayed communications and substandard data quality. Ineffective methods for managing return mail can lead to customer dissatisfaction, lost chances, and failure to meet USPS Move Update requirements. Don’t let stacks of UAA mail and old addresses hurt your business. It’s time for a forward-looking return mail solution.

The High Cost of UAA Mail

In 2023, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) processed nearly 4.5 billion pieces of undeliverable as addressed (UAA) mail, which represents a significant portion of total outbound mail. This UAA mail costs the USPS approximately $1.33 billion. For businesses, the financial impact is even greater, with estimated costs of $20 billion annually to manage UAA mail. Each piece of undeliverable mail can cost a company up to $25 in expenses related to reprocessing, including postage, labor, and address updates^​​1

These expenses come from several key factors:

In addition to the direct costs, UAA mail disrupts customer communications and damages the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Undelivered bills, statements, and notices can lead to delayed payments, lost revenue, and potential compliance risks for businesses in regulated industries. Marketing efforts also suffer as promotional materials fail to reach intended audiences, wasting both time and money​​

Outsourcing return mail processing can help reduce these costs and streamline returned mail handling, ensuring that your business maintains up-to-date address records and minimizes disruption to your operations.

Returned Mail Solution from FSSI: eReturn Mail

With eReturn Mail™, a Return Mail solution from FSSI, you can electronically manage all undeliverable-as-addressed mail and update your customer address database. As a result, you’ll get rid of the trays of undeliverable mail taking up space in your mailroom. Eliminate or drastically reduce all of your undeliverable mail and say goodbye to staff having to manually enter it all into your system.

• Electronic Data & Imaging: Get prompt electronic data files with new address information (from NCOALink processing and other sources) and images of your returned mail items. This allows for quick updates to your customer records, greatly reducing return mail volume over time.
• Reasons for Non-Delivery: Find out why mail is undeliverable with specific reason codes, allowing for focused corrective steps for better address quality solutions.
• Secure Mail Disposal Option: Direct the USPS to securely dispose of UAA mail after data capture, doing away with the need for physical management and lowering return mail costs tied to storage and shredding.
• Proactive Address Updates: Use ACS processing (Address Change Service) and other address correction services to keep your mailing lists correct and minimize undeliverable mail from the start.
• Thorough Reporting: Get information about your return mail trends with itemized reporting, assisting you to pinpoint trouble spots and refine your mailings for improved mail list management services.

Keep Your Customer Address Database Up-to-Date and Reduce Returned Mail

eReturn Mail is an electronic return mail management solution that provides a digital file of all “Change of Address” (COA) and “Undeliverable as Addressed” (UAA) information for physically returned mailpieces, covering all scenarios of return mail, and decreasing occurrences of nixies in the process.

Here’s How eReturn Mail Works:

• Using a proprietary program, FSSI matches USPS data with our database, so there is no manual processing on your side
• Through FSSI’s Unique Piece Tracking (UPT), we provide you with data on all mail that was returned in a convenient electronic file
• We format the data so you can quickly and easily manage customer addresses and make real-time updates
• When postal address updates are not feasible without consent, you can quickly identify and contact customers to get updated information
• Satisfies Move Update compliance by streamlining the review process and address cleansing practices to help keep your customer data up to date
• With Secure Destruction, you can instruct the USPS to destroy all UAA mail and forward all COA mail to your customers
• Physical mail stacking up in a company’s mailroom can be eliminated or significantly reduced

Return Mail Handling and Processing Solutions

With eReturn Mail™, a Return Mail solution from FSSI, you can electronically manage all undeliverable-as-addressed mail and update your customer address database. As a result, you’ll get rid of the trays of undeliverable mail taking up space in your mailroom. Eliminate or drastically reduce all of your undeliverable mail and say goodbye to staff having to manually enter it all into your system.

Save Time and Money and Re-Capture Lost Business Opportunities

Our return mail services enable you to save time and money spent on managing and processing UAA mail and help keep your communications moving forward as planned. Re-capture lost financial and business opportunities and reap the benefits of not having to manage as many returned pieces of mail. With fewer missed bills and notices and more positive customer experiences, it can be a reality.

The Operational Benefits of eReturn Mail:

• Effectively manage all undeliverable mail: Receive both COA and UAA information for physically returned mail pieces. Utilize the data to electronically manage all undeliverable mail.
• Easily update customer address database:  Make real-time revisions to your customer address database based on information in the electronic data file, which is formatted for quick and easy updates. Address cleansing can be a great way to save money on wasted postage costs.
• Automate outreach for consent:  When the database cannot be updated without permission, easily identify customers as UAA or COA. We will set up a process to send a letter to get consent for any database modifications.
• Stop sending to undeliverable addresses: Reduce unnecessary costs for mail that you know can’t be delivered. Enlist the customer service team to follow up and get the correct recipient information.

The Cost Benefits of eReturn Mail:

• Eliminate postage assessments: If COA-specific mail exceeds 0.5% in one month, additional postage assessments will be incurred. (Here are other tips to reduce postage costs.)
• Decrease internal business costs: Eliminate the time and labor costs associated with managing and processing large quantities of returned mail and the extra postage fees assessed on nixies.
• Stay USPS Move Update compliant: Conform with USPS Move Update when COA information is used to update the customer database.  We can also get the consent needed to make updates within the 95-day time requirement. Eliminate or reduce additional Move Update fees and penalties.
• Reduce or eliminate physical handling of mail: With USPS Secure Destruction, instruct the USPS to destroy UAA mail and forward COA mail to customers.
• Re-capture lost financial opportunities: Eliminate missed bills or notices, which can affect revenue and overall customer experience.  Keep communications moving as planned.

Why Choose FSSI’s eReturn Mail to Manage Undeliverable Mail?

Problem: NCOA doesn’t capture all undeliverable-as-addressed mail, only changes of address that were registered with the USPS. Even if you can update your customer database based on NCOA information, you’ll still receive all other “Undeliverable as Addressed” mailpieces. Additional postage assessments will be incurred if COA-specific mail exceeds 0.5% in one month. Additionally, customer addresses need to be updated with any changes within 95 days of the mail date to be Move Update compliant.

Solution: Our address cleansing services cover ALL undeliverable mail. With the electronic information from FSSI, you can update your customer address database electronically and in real time. Correspondence can also be coordinated to get consent to make updates. We handle all return mail data digitally and can manage any scenario. Secure destruction also eliminates handling returned mail and having to manage/process nixies.

Be 100% on Top of Your Undeliverable Mail

Choose the solution that covers all of your return mail and enables you to electronically manage it with ease, from handling address management and address cleansing to updating your customer address database. With eReturn Mail, keeping up with physically returned USPS mail will never be an issue again. Take the steps today to eliminate heaps of UAA and COA mail and effectively manage it all like a pro.

Let FSSI Manage Your Undeliverable-As-Addressed Mail

Returned mail and address database cleansing are costly and problematic issues for many businesses. If you are looking to reduce the cost and volume of undeliverable mail and make sure more documents reach the hands of your customers (instead of returning to your mailroom), we can help.

Contact us online or call us at (714) 436-3300 to schedule a no-obligation consultation. This innovative solution will immediately change the way you manage and update your customer address database and handle returned mailpieces, and meet Move Update compliance.

Sources:

¹https://www.sepire.com/blog/undeliverable-as-addressed-mail-facts-figures-and-fixes-part-1