Data Entry According to USPS standards

Ida Martyrossian

Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

JoAnn Strommen

Ida Martyrossian:
Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

Our addresses are entered as close to USPS standards as can be done easily (i.e. we don't research each +4 zip) but with upper and lower case.  Many mailings/list are done directly out of RE so this works for us.  If we needed to do all caps we could select that option in the mailing format. For the few mailings done by mail house they do any standardizing needed like the +4.

To me, the biggest thing is to be consistent in the format you use.  If you don't use USPS standards, what standards/formats will you set? Clean up can be a pain. 

Beverly Lyles

JoAnn Strommen:

Our addresses are entered as close to USPS standards as can be done easily (i.e. we don't research each +4 zip) but with upper and lower case.  Many mailings/list are done directly out of RE so this works for us.  If we needed to do all caps we could select that option in the mailing format. For the few mailings done by mail house they do any standardizing needed like the +4.

To me, the biggest thing is to be consistent in the format you use.  If you don't use USPS standards, what standards/formats will you set? Clean up can be a pain. 

What about punctuation?  This has become an major discussion at our university and half feel that the punctuation should be included and the other half feel that we should leave it out.  My position has been that we can take the punctuation out easier than we can put it in when we are doing mail merge documents.  How are others dealing with this?

Carol Theis

Bev Lyles:
What about punctuation?  This has become an major discussion at our university and half feel that the punctuation should be included and the other half feel that we should leave it out.  My position has been that we can take the punctuation out easier than we can put it in when we are doing mail merge documents.  How are others dealing with this?

 We use upper and lower case letters, and spell out everything except directionals (NSEW) and the word Apartment. This avoids the conversation about punctuation.  We add punctuation to our mail merges. For most of our mailings we prefer to look more "formal" (personalized??) than USPS standards allow.

Lisette Depew-Kubie

Ida Martyrossian:
Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

We handle it like Carol does. That way our letters look more professional/personal/old fashioned (?) with most everything spelled out and with appropriate punctuation. When the mail house handles our larger mailings, we bow to the USPS format and let them modify the labels to subscribe to what the USPS wants (no punctuation, horrible abbreviations of roads and city names, etc.) in order to get the best postal rates.

Melissa Graves 2

Ida Martyrossian:
Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

I have the address accelerator program offeed by bb for re. It allows you to scan all new and changed addresses and cass certify them to postal standards. You have some options to do modified cass certified such as including punctuation and not using all caps. i love it.

Nicole S

Melissa Graves:
I have the address accelerator program offeed by bb for re. It allows you to scan all new and changed addresses and cass certify them to postal standards. You have some options to do modified cass certified such as including punctuation and not using all caps. i love it.

Similar to Carol and Lisette, we spell everything out.  We also use use AddressAccelerator for ZIP+4 and standardizing when people enter their info online or if staff does not format properly.  This is fine for any mailing we do in-house (acknowledgements, invitation, and very small appeals).  Because these are not mass mailings, I don't have any issues with speed and we use 1st class stamps anyway.  And it looks nicer and is easier to take out than put back.

Our mail-house abbreviates and caps.

Melissa Graves 2

Nicole S.:

Similar to Carol and Lisette, we spell everything out.  We also use use AddressAccelerator for ZIP+4 and standardizing when people enter their info online or if staff does not format properly.  This is fine for any mailing we do in-house (acknowledgements, invitation, and very small appeals).  Because these are not mass mailings, I don't have any issues with speed and we use 1st class stamps anyway.  And it looks nicer and is easier to take out than put back.

Our mail-house abbreviates and caps.

Spelling everything out may look fine and dandy but can delay your mailing. USPS format is there for a reason, to allow your envelopes to be electonically screened and expedited. If not able to be screened (they try 3 times) it then is tossed in a bin to be hand read and someone keys in the proper mailing address so the piece can be barcoded - you only hope they match it properly. This can (and likely will) delay delivery of your pieces even if you mail first class.

People are used to seeing their address in the standard format. I do not get the pros of using the longer format - especially when the cons include your piece being possibly lost in the mail.

Karen Hartt

Ida Martyrossian:
Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

I agree with Melissa. It is better to use the post office address standards. It helps get the mail to your destination faster and makes any bulk mail more likely to be delivered. I've attached the standards we use. My 2 cents. Karen

JoAnn Strommen

Karen H. Hartt:
I agree with Melissa. It is better to use the post office address standards. It helps get the mail to your destination faster and makes any bulk mail more likely to be delivered. I've attached the standards we use. My 2 cents. Karen

Was looking at the attachment - found it interesting for Street Designators (pg 4) that Highway is abbreviated.  My experience has been that Hwy is changed to full word in USPS formatting.  [:)]

Thanks for sharing this list, Karen.

Melissa Graves 2

JoAnn Strommen:

Was looking at the attachment - found it interesting for Street Designators (pg 4) that Highway is abbreviated.  My experience has been that Hwy is changed to full word in USPS formatting.  [:)]

Thanks for sharing this list, Karen.

I think the post office is consistently inconsistent on this.

Check out this document: http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub28/pub28.pdf

Page 80 has lots of examples where they change HWY to HIGHWAY

Page 147 says HWY is the postal standard for HIGHWAY.

Carol Theis

Melissa Graves:

Spelling everything out may look fine and dandy but can delay your mailing. USPS format is there for a reason, to allow your envelopes to be electonically screened and expedited. If not able to be screened (they try 3 times) it then is tossed in a bin to be hand read and someone keys in the proper mailing address so the piece can be barcoded - you only hope they match it properly. This can (and likely will) delay delivery of your pieces even if you mail first class.

People are used to seeing their address in the standard format. I do not get the pros of using the longer format - especially when the cons include your piece being possibly lost in the mail.

 When our committee first met to discuss our School's address standards, I had looked at and asked the committee members to look at the USPS standards. I suggested using the USPS standards for both our EE and RE databases for all of the reasons Melissa listed. It was our Development Office who did not want to use them. They insisted that they wanted the spelled-out version for their mailings.  Since we plan to integrate our databases, we all deferred to their request. Our EE users are taking advantage of the electronic communication options at their disposal as much as possible for report cards, etc. and are looking toward doing online re-enrollment, too.  So, we are slowly limiting the USPS mailings from the Registrar's Office and Student Billing programs.  It would have been much easier to use the USPS standards that are already in place - far less discussion over minor details, but a compromise was made and we are using the standards the Development Office wanted.

Ida Martyrossian

Ida Martyrossian:
Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

 Thank you all for your expert advice. I'll consider all of them and come to a decision.

 Thanks, Ida

Rebekah Trachsel

Ida Martyrossian:
Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

 I've worked at a number of organizations and this is a problem with keeping addresses standardized.  However, an easy solution is to get the RE Address Accelerator.  It automatically validates the address into the USPS standards including the extra 4 digits at the end of the zip code.  This makes everything so much easier.

Stephanie Perez-Rios 2

Carol Theis:

Bev Lyles:

What about punctuation?  This has become an major discussion at our university and half feel that the punctuation should be included and the other half feel that we should leave it out.  My position has been that we can take the punctuation out easier than we can put it in when we are doing mail merge documents.  How are others dealing with this?

 

 We use upper and lower case letters, and spell out everything except directionals (NSEW) and the word Apartment. This avoids the conversation about punctuation.  We add punctuation to our mail merges. For most of our mailings we prefer to look more "formal" (personalized??) than USPS standards allow.

 

 Question - do you turn off the address accelerator feature so that your spelled out words like "Street" appear instead of it changing it back to St.?

William Henderson

If you are going to use the USPS to do a bulk mailing for an in house mailing it would make sense to have the address according to the USPS standards.

Daniel Noga 2

This is a change that I just recently implemented at my organization. We did a cleanup/update of our records using a third-party data broker and as part of the package, I asked to have all of our addresses formatted according to USPS standards, update our Deceased records, etc. I have worked for several organizations that prioritized the aesthetic of their mailpieces over deliverability, meaning that like others in this discussion thread, they wanted things spelled out, punctuated and as formal-looking as possible. This is all well and good until one of your major donors fails to receive an acknowledgement letter delivered to an address that has been good for years because a computer couldn't figure it out that *one* time, and it's tax time.



The only point on which anybody here disagreed was when it came to the capitalization; they were fine losing punctuation and using more abbreviations, but for some, having the addresses printed in caps was a tough pill to swallow. I printed out example letters both ways and in the end, the following compromise was reached: Addresses could be capitalized and should otherwise be formatted to USPS standards. Addressees were also converted to caps. Salutations, however, were left in Proper Case.



Our rationale: Yes, there are many who prefer to receive letters that look more "personal," but everything is getting computerized now and more and more people are comfortable with that. In fact, I perceive a shift from the "that looks so cold and impersonal" viewpoint to the "glad to see they're saving some money by automating things" perspective. Your mileage may vary but this is my experience. In addition, we would rather our mailpieces get there and get read than never arrive at all; what's the point of putting so much tought into a mail piece that never gets opened? So we cede the territory of addresses over to USPS and we put our energy into writing good letters and connecting with our donors despite the appearance of our addresses. We will see how it works out, as we just did this in the last couple of weeks.





 

John Heizer

My personal philosophy is the exact opposite of Daniel's.  I think addresses in RE should be formatted as if you were going to send a wedding invitation.  Computers can EASILY adapt and reformat an address to meet USPS standards (RE mail module even helps you with that with the punctuation and all caps options on the Format tab) for when you need it.  Computers don't do as good a job in the reverse direction.  We put a lot of effort into making our mailings look friendly and appealing and if we're spending the money to send something first class it should look "first class."  Yes, sending bulk is a different matter, but the mailhouse is going to have to run the list through their processing software anyway to get it sorted and grouped correctly so let it do any needed formatting "on-the-fly."

JoAnn Strommen

While our procedure is similar to John's, I was wondering why this post started years ago is active again.  It looks like the question posed today by Stephanie is (her question is below the quoted section and while everyone's post since hers came thru - hers didn't come through to me? ):

 

 Question - do you turn off the address accelerator feature so that your spelled out words like "Street" appear instead of it changing it back to St.?

So, if someone who uses address accelerator can answer that for her.... 

John Heizer

JoAnn Strommen:

While our procedure is similar to John's, I was wondering why this post started years ago is active again.  It looks like the question posed today by Stephanie is (her question is below the quoted section and while everyone's post since hers came thru - hers didn't come through to me? ):

 

 Question - do you turn off the address accelerator feature so that your spelled out words like "Street" appear instead of it changing it back to St.?

So, if someone who uses address accelerator can answer that for her.... 

 

Yeah, I'd noticed that this was a rather old thread, but it's a good discussion and nice that folks still find and contribute to the discussion (even if somewhat off the original topic/question).  Shows that folks ARE searching for existing answers before starting a whole new thread. 

Nicole S

There is an option in AddressAccelerator to make it abreviate or spell out. 

 

How to change the formatting options for AddressAccelerator

How to use AddressAccelerator and keep the punctuation in an address, change the formatting options, ... Prior to running Address Accelerator (BB81717), set up the appropriate business rule...



BTdubs, I also agree with John and JoAnn, and have never had any problems whatsoever with mail because of how my outer envelop is formatted -- but if you are doing some bulk mail out of RE, you can use the format tab (in Mail) to use all caps and remove punctuation for labels or envelopes and still use proper case on a letter.  It doesn't abbreviate though.  There may be some other options that I'm forgetting.  My current org does not use AA and I can't remember if there is another tab for bulk mail.

Michelle Kolak

We have occasionally gotten the same request to use the more personalized addresses.  It seems to happen with every top management change. I pointed out that other databases around campus, including the one Payroll uses and the one that houses our student information, all are using USPS standards.  Because I import new records or get updates from these databases, the idea of having to convert them all is ridiculous.  



We also NCOA screen all of our records, and get about 3,000 new addresses every three months that are standardized.  Because our addresses are already standardized, the turn-around time on the file of over 160,000 records has been as soon as 3 hours.  We do not have the staff to convert all of these.  I did a bit of research and found a company that could do it, but it would be very expensive and difficult to maintain with the staff that we have. We aren't getting more staff, and our budget is actually being cut, so it was finally put to rest, at least until the next time



 

Jen Claudy

We go with USPS formatting, except for the all caps.  In my experience, and in discussions with our mailhouse, the all caps piece doesn't adversely affect our mail deliverability.  Our mailhouse also uses a font that closely matches our branding font, and puts the barcode for automation (better postage rates) in the bottom right corner, where USPS puts it...which makes the overall piece look much more formal.  We do bulk mail in-house as well as thru the mailhouse, and we regularly (every 90 days) do a NCOA screening on our entire database.  Having all of the USPS formatting speeds that process a lot.  And it means that we don't need to have any standards for anyone to use/remember/lookup/audit later for address entry.  I have a query I can run to spot check if necessary, but generally we time the screening to coincide with big mailings, so everything is standardized automatically by the screening.



When we do a bulk mailing (from the mailhouse or on our own), we almost always use nonprofit stamps, which make the piece look more formal as well.  And we print letters using a process outside RE, so I have complete of control over how everything works.  For the address block on the letters, we add in the comma between city and state, but on the envelope, it's not there.  We've asked a few people (board members, volunteers, development committee members) what they've noticed, and no one has ever commented on missing punctuation or wondering about abbreviations, but they have noted the stamp (not realizing it's a nonprofit stamp instead of first-class).



And we use +4 zip whenever available (which is everything except new addresses since the last screening and addresses with problems reported from the screening, which we look up as soon as possible).  But be aware, the +4 zip can change so it's a good idea to regularly NCOA screen your database and import the changes to your database (or use BB AddressFinder and/or AddressAccelerator).



The one other thing that we did at my last job, at our CEO's request, was to change back the USPS abbreviation of "Xing" to the full "Crossing" on streets (we have one in town that is common in the database).  Purely for aesthetics, and easily done with a Global Change after each screening import.

Christina Williams

Melissa Graves:

Ida Martyrossian:

Hello, Do you enter the address informaiton based on the USPS standards or do you or your mail house standardize them before each mailing in the output file? Thanks, Ida

I have the address accelerator program offeed by bb for re. It allows you to scan all new and changed addresses and cass certify them to postal standards. You have some options to do modified cass certified such as including punctuation and not using all caps. i love it.

 

We have AddressAccelerator too, but it drives me crazy! We like to have everything spelled out except directionals, and AddressAccelerator does not give that option. So a cople times a year a run Global Changes to switch "Northwest" to "NW", and so forth. I wish it was more flexible... And would put Apartment and Unit numbers on the next line.

John Mercer

We enter all the information in Raiser's Edge in full, complete addresses, full spellings, punctuation, etc. That way, when we send acknowledgement letters or invitations, they are formal. We let the mail house abbreviate when doing bulk mailings.