I mail somewhere around 5000 post cards a month. I have used several different companies, most local to me, and lately, my number of retired cards has skyrocketed in my opinion. What is everybody seeing for returned post card percentages lately and do you think it is getting worse than it has been? My mailing services all claim they are scrubbing and verifying but I never had this issue 10 years ago.
Most come back saying “Not deliverable as addressed”. This is first class postage. Does this mean the name of the recipient has to match the address or they kick it back to me?
@landman I get those all the time. Doesn’t matter if the undeliverable or non-standardized addresses have been removed, it will never completely eliminate them.
When you say it’s skyrocketed, is it a fair comparison? In other words, have you made any changes in where you’re pulling your lists, how you’re filtering them, how you’re scrubbing them, what counties you’re working in? If you’ve changed anything at all, it might be worth looking closely at those changes to spot whatever might be caused the trend.
Also, how meticulously are you tracking your returns? Are you actually keeping a log of the exact percentage getting sent back to you, month after month, or are you just going by your gut feeling? If you want to draw any real conclusions, it’ll be important to use fair and accurate measurements over time.