Mail Processing System
Mail Processing System
A synopsis of the system as it is being designed is below:
Our Mail Processing System is comprised of three modules. The first module is the Pre-Mail Process; the second module is the Return Mail Process; and the third module is the Electronic Skip Trace Process. Our system is designed for those firms who print and mail their own collection/demand letters. Our process is similar to the method used by typical mailing companies that you would outsource your letter processing to except our system is far more comprehensive than a typical mailing processor provides.
The best way to evaluate if a service is worth the cost is to perform an analysis. We have an Excel spreadsheet that you may use to compute your expenses for letter processing. Please contact us directly to receive a copy of this Excel spreadsheet for your analysis process. (Note: This is future information for after our release of this product.) The spreadsheet can be used to assist you in making an informed decision based on specific facts that you supply and enter into the cells of the spreadsheet. Don't be surprised if you can't immediately answer some or all of the questions. Contact the appropriate person in your organization to get the statistics as close to "actual" as possible as this will increase the value of this analysis. The spreadsheet starts with some very simple questions. For example, "How many letters do you mail in a month?"
You will probably find some of the results very surprising. Please contact us so that you may determine your current costs and to allow us the opportunity to show you how we can save you money.
Pre-Mail Process
This process is the foundation of lowering the expenses associated with mailing letters. There are several firms that will CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) certify/format your debtor's address. The cost for this service is fairly inexpensive. CASS certifying is a great process. The problem is if you only CASS certify there are many obstacles that you will encounter. If an address is simply CASS formatted, it does not provide any guarantee that the address is a valid address. For this, the U.S. Postal Service has another product, DPV (Delivery Point Validation). Now we're talking about a true physical address. And there are other products that the U.S. Postal Service has such as NCOA (National Change of Address) and Fast Forward -- just to name a few.
Unfortunately the debtors that you are looking for do not usually make it easy for you to find them. After all, most of the time they do not want you to find them!
Here is how the pre-mail process works. First, you submit the address (to us) which you will be mailing the letter. (Additionally, we require the name, social security number and your internal case/file number which are used in a later process -- see below.) With this information the address is Cass certified. For those addresses that you submit that have incomplete information, we return a file to you so that you may make corrections. This in itself will provide a significant savings as you will no longer mail out to invalid addresses. For those addresses that have been properly Cass certified, the address is checked in the Delivery Point Validation process. If an address is found to be invalid, we will return it to you in an invalid address file so that you may make corrections. And once again this will represent a significant savings as you don't waste money on the mail process for this debtor until the information is correct.
But wait, there is still more to this. On all validated addresses that you submit -- Name, Address, Social Security Number and Case/File number -- are then encrypted and a symbol is created. The data is encrypted to ensure that no one can simply scan the symbol and obtain the social security number. The symbol is returned in the file for processing your letters. When your letters are printed, the symbol will be visible in the address window.
Return Mail Process
Of course, no matter what -- there are always some letters that come back. This process is designed to reduce the time required to process the return mail. Today many firms are using bar codes and scanners for processing their return mail. This is great; it means that at least you are making use of technology to reduce your expense. The only problem with this method is there is still work to be performed after the mail has been scanned. Someone has to run a program to update the database, then someone has to run a query to find the items that were returned, then someone has to decide which files go to the skip tracers and on and on. The problem with this methodology is, if there is a breakdown in the process and with this many steps and with everyone pushing people with bigger workloads, things start falling into the cracks.
With our process, NCAN Services will provide software at no charge to you that will expedite this process for you. Here is what happens when mail is processed with our Return Mail Process. You will sort the mail as you currently do. If, for example, return type 1 is "Moved, No Forwarding Address", you will key "1" into the return type box on the screen. Then you will scan all the return type 1 envelopes. When completed, you will enter the next return type and so on until the mail has all been scanned. We decode the data, and then we create a file by which your database can be updated.
Electronic Skip Trace Process
In addition, we create a file that is sent via secure FTP to NCAN services and these records are electronically skip traced. Notification is provided to you via email that indicates the file has been processed and is available to be retrieved.
Please check out our "Skip Trace Electronic" tab for more information on this process.
