Our world goes by so quickly and our brains are bombarded with images at a phenomenal rate. The human brain can absorb something to the tune of 7200 images and 600 words a minute according to Randy J. Harvey PhD. Every web site you open has some kind of blinking message or scrolling banner, our billboards have gone LCD and don’t even get me started about cell phones and texting. Mail volume is picking up too, which is great news for all of us.

Making your message stand out has always been a priority with Compact. We’re experts at listening to you- then working with you to find the best audience for your message. Not only getting your message out- but getting it to the right audience with the most deliverable addresses- PERIOD! It doesn’t matter how great your graphics are- how good your offer is- if it doesn’t get delivered- you and your customer are wasting money.

Recently we had a customer ask why we didn’t have several ZIP codes on a database they wanted to mail. Other compilers showed this to be a valid ZIP code and it even showed up on USPS.com. Compact is not a company that leaves well enough alone- we delved deeper and made a few calls. (Our tech group is absolutely amazing!). The ZIP codes in question were coded as Vacant and another is not currently active within the Address Management System. That means that our clients client had been mailing invalid addresses and wasting hundreds of dollars in postage and printing every month.

Get your message to the right place- the first time. Direct Mail works and Compact works for you.

Chris Slauter
Compact Information Systems

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, our new servers have arrived. From a technology guy’s perspective let me just say, “Impressive”! We ran the servers through their paces and there were nothing but smiles on everyone’s faces. Now that the new servers are loaded on the rack and serving up data in record time you all will be smiling too. If you haven’t already tried out the new sites and servers you should browse right over to www.compactlists.com and give them a run. As always customer satisfaction is our key concern here at Compact and these new servers will continue to make that possible.

Randy Kienzle, VP Tech

Did you know that when you purchase a USPS Walk Sequence/Saturation Address file, your list may contain the same exact address more than once? Most people would ask, “Wouldn’t those records be duplicates?”

Technically there is no way for us to provide you with a “duplicate” address. Each address record we output has been designated as a separate USPS delivery in walk sequence by the postal carrier. These are delivery points or receptacles that service multiple families or businesses. Although the address field is the same, each address will have its own unique walk sequence number in the file.

Sometimes referred to as “Drops” or “Drop Stops”, duplicated addresses can be found in several different scenarios, for example:

Duplex
Fourplex
Boarding House / Fraternity
SFDU with a rental unit attached
Apartment Buildings / Lobby Drops
Gated Communities
Simplified Routes

Some data processes performed on the data after it leaves Compact may flag these records as “bad” or even remove them from the list output. It is important to remember that doing so will invalidate the USPS Qualification paperwork we have provided with our data as well as affect the saturation level attained in each route. The individual addresses included in the piece count that determines whether a route is “Saturated” does indeed include all multiple deliveries present on a given route. So, in certain circumstances removing these addresses could drop the saturation level of a route down to high density or basic rate.

The bottom line is, every address we provide is deliverable as is! In most cases your mail preparer should not be doing anything to alter the enhanced carrier route walk sequence files. Multiple drops do not mean the data is bad or inaccurate, in fact just the opposite: we would not be providing you with a complete route listing if we did not include the drops. For more information about the workings of the Walk Sequence Saturation data, please give us a call!

Thanks,
Mary McCarty
List Services Manager