Everything you need to know about Cycle O

Everything you need to know about Cycle O

Address Quality Cycle O (comprised of CASS Cycle O and NCOA Cycle O) includes improvements to the quality, correctness, and amount of address-related information that is made available by the USPS. Originally set for August 1, 2022, the implementation has been rescheduled for August 2023. This pushes these enhancements to CASS software back by two years, but GrayHair will continue to work with our clients to identify impacts and opportunities.

The Background

Cycle O is the next USPS major set of changes to its addressing products that have a direct effect on any CASS-certified (address matching) and NCOALink software.

The USPS has worked with companies to identify their business and mailing needs to ensure a higher level of precision related to address quality. In addition to improving address information to make it actionable, the USPS is making more data available regarding the characteristics of an address. This information can be used to identify if the address is correct for the intended use as well as to identify additional levels of risk for delivery issues and/or fraud.

After nearly a decade of reviewing and documenting these new address-related policies, the USPS has published detailed specifications for changes that are currently scheduled to go into effect in August 2023. Cycle O includes improvements to the quality, nature, and amount of address-related information that is made available by the USPS.

Having this additional address-related information is just step one. Step two and beyond is understanding what all this data means and how it applies to a business’s many different address-related activities. Does the address reflect where an individual is living, shipping, and/or mailing locations? Does the address have restrictions or risks on who can deliver to a location, what can be delivered, who all is involved, or if a true “signature” can be obtained?

This is a highly anticipated release, and if not initiated, can result in missed opportunities for better address data quality and a reduction in postage discounts.

Benefits of these changes are:

• Eliminating wasted mail (mail that will not get delivered) via the identification of addresses with unique characteristics
  • Reduce costs
  • Qualify for more discounts
  • Improve ROI
• Finding the correct, complete, and current address for your intended business need
  • Identifying risky addresses
  • Reduce levels of fraud and privacy-related risks (PII, etc.)
  • Know how mail is delivered to that address and if the location is secure
• Meeting industry-specific and regulatory address regulations
  • Financial, Healthcare, Insurance, Telco, Government, etc.

Opportunities for mailers include:

• Reduce overall returned/wasted mail by 10% or more
• Identify addresses that are known to be undeliverable
• Identify multiple levels of fraud risk
• Identify when new addresses start receiving mail

Cycle O gives businesses more information about the quality, nature, and deliverability of an address enabling smarter business decisions.

What can you do as far as planning for this change?

For our enterprise clients, we have recommended these three steps to get started.

1. Know Your Data: Work with GrayHair on a detailed address characteristic analysis to understand the current status as well as the future state. We can determine if you are taking full advantage of postage discounts. If we are already working with an organization, it is likely that we are already meeting quarterly to consider options to optimize postal opportunities and improvements.
2. Know Your Needs: GrayHair identifies the impact and the opportunities to allow for the identification and ranking of potential projects by ROI. We start by asking our clients, “Am I doing the best thing for my business?” That’s where we are focused – not on one specific measurement (like postage), but on finding the maximum business value.
3. Develop a Plan: Our team of postal data experts and analysts is equipped to manage the successful implementation of Address Quality Cycle O for you and remove the burden from your internal staff. Through our service and data-oriented platform, we can optimize the changes to ensure the best outcome for your organization. For many of our clients, that can mean savings of millions of dollars in their postal budget.

Per the Postal Service™, a majority of First-Class Mail’s Service Standards will not change with an estimated  70 percent of First-Class Mail volume having a delivery standard of 1-3 days.

Even though new standards go into effect on October 1, there could be disruptions as the Postal Service implements the full changes across their network. 

On a related note, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform has sent a letter to the Postmaster General asking for an explanation on why these changes are being made. You can read about it here.