Customer Communication Management (CCM) is a strategy for managing and improving the way a business interacts with its customers. CCM is essential, yet in 2024, the USPS alone processed 4,314,700,000 pieces of undeliverable mail across all classes.

When I received this opportunity to write a piece for Mailing Systems Technology, I immediately thought of address hygiene as the best practice to increase the deliverability of every mail piece (to the extent possible). Mail is important and I also believe that a compliant and accurate mailing address is the foundation for finding and maintaining email addresses and phone numbers.

Face it: There are not that many effective ways to reach people. Organizations are focused on finding and “selling to” customers. They often overlook the fundamentals associated with staying in touch with them. It seems simple, but we all know it is not. American adults move an average of 11 or 12 times in their lifetime.

CCM helps businesses deliver personalized communications to their customers across multiple channels. By delivering consistent and relevant information, customer loyalty increases. CCM increases customer loyalty by making customers feel valued. CCM solutions can automate the creation and delivery of messages through these channels:

• Mail: CCM uses deliverable mail across all mail classes to deepen relationships and trust
• Email: CCM uses email to send marketing messages, reminders/time-based offers, and renewal notifications
• SMS: CCM can be expanded to include SMS to notify customers
• Web pages: CCM uses web pages to share deeper information with customers
• Social media: CCM utilizes social media to communicate with customers
• Live chat: CCM can incorporate live chat to engage with customers

This quote from Kurt Vonnegut describes the industry’s conundrum perfectly. He said: “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” It makes so much sense yet seems almost self-fulfilling. Businesses are interested in selling their goods and services to foster growth. They should not stop those pursuits. I do believe there is a perception in most organizations that they understand the value of “building” far better than the value of “maintenance.”

Why Build It to Let It Die?

Businesses should focus onmaintaining their databases so that all resulting communications can be as deliverable as possible. Getting these communications delivered is the goal. An old adage states that it is far less expensive to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one. Yet, many businesses forge this wisdom. “Maintenance” such as strong address hygiene practices, can result in great growth (which is far more profitable) that is too often overlooked. It is acknowledged that implementing address hygiene requires upfront investment and effort. However, there are substantial long-term cost savings and revenue generation opportunities that result from improved deliverability and reduced wasted resources.

Why?

Address hygiene services should interest any organization. Organizations lack the knowledge and internal resources to manage their databases well. Their resources are engaged managing their “core” functions, which usually do not include address hygiene or mail-related functions. Most organizations do not have the feedback structure internally (or through a third-party managed print and mail services vendor) to properly capture and update their database records to comply with the USPS’s Move Update mandate.

Compliance Aspects

The USPS requires mailers using certain discounted postage rates to regularly update their mailing lists to reflect changes of address. Failure to do so can result in higher postage costs and lower deliverability. This is known (albeit simplified) as the Move Update mandate. This is what every mailer taking these “discounted rates” agrees to.

There are a number of people running CASS and NCOA on mailing files across the industry. Often overlooked is that mailers must “demonstrate that they have updated their mailing list….” It is interesting how many mailers know of the CASS and NCOA databases and associated processes but have no idea which of their addresses are outdated/bad. They get no reporting and often lack the skills to understand what the reports these services generate.

Why We Remain “Sick”

Ignoring bad data is like ignoring a heart condition – it may seem manageable at first, but the consequences can be devastating overall, affecting your bottom line. In some very real ways, this is what is happening in organizations that do not take the time to work with service providers who can explain the reports and provide actionable options on how to remediate the issues they find in these databases; In short, how and when to update their bad data.

Then it snowballs as their other communications are “poisoned” by the bad address data. Emails, SMS messages, social media, and live chat communications go unanswered (because they do not reach the intended recipient). Marketing response rates and sales rates are artificially “suppressed” because of the same bad data being used to send undeliverable communications. A failed communication is one where the mail piece (or other) does not reach its intended recipient in a timely manner. The effects to a business of undelivered mail (and other communications) go well beyond just “inconvenience.” Studies show that improved address accuracy can increase marketing response rates by 6.33% and save the mailing organization an average of $3.00 – $10.00/undelivered piece.

More Maintenance (Not Cowbell)!

The data does not take long to deteriorate, either. According to the US Census, more than 27 million US residents moved in 2023. Only about 40% of movers tell the USPS that they have moved by filing a change of address form (PS Form 3575). These movers are our customers. We need to engage with strong address hygiene service providers who can provide the actionable insights we need. It is not easy, nor is it a “destination” organizations will reach and never need to deal with again.

Getting Started

Address hygiene is a lifestyle for any organization. Businesses should engage appropriate internal or external resources. These resources must have industry experience and skills to counsel organizations to make the best choices from the options provided. Common monthly services offered include:

• Data Deduplication: Removing duplicate records
• CASS services: Ensuring addresses conform to USPS standardization requirements
• NCOA services: Providersoffer both 48-month and 18-month services
• PCOA services: Accesses address data from non-USPS databases to find movers who do not tell the USPS of their move
• IMb creation and data analytics: Through data feeds from the USPS’s ACS and Secure Destruction programs
• Mail Tracking and reporting: Tracking outbound mail through USPS network to monitor timely delivery
• Regular data cleansing and updating: Ongoing cadence of the processes/services is essential. None of this is just a one-time fix.
• Reporting and Analytics: Possibly the cornerstone and of most value as your provider can do a deep dive into the data and explain how each issue is affecting deliverability

No Time Like the Present – DO NOT WAIT

It is important to be able to provide great insight when compliance, risk, and dollars are involved. These service providers (internal or external) become integral to any organization’s CCM strategy and effectiveness. The conversations will involve and “touch” all parts of an organization. When done correctly, address hygiene becomes the cornerstone of any effective CCM practices and program. The first step is the most important! Set your organization on the right path today.

Mark Rheaume is Advisory Engineer, Ricoh.

This article originally appeared in the September/October, 2025 issue of Mailing Systems Technology.