What is Delivery Point Validation (DPV)?
What is Delivery Point Validation (DPV)?
Addresses are perhaps the most important piece of customer information that businesses have, and they are often used for various outreach programs targeted at the business’s (potential) customers. As a business, errors of any kind are not desirable, and addresses are often susceptible to an error. Businesses and companies try their best to avoid any bad data in their direct mail efforts because they pour valuable time and resources into it.
It is only natural that companies or businesses would want to make sure that their address database is clean and, more importantly, ensure that the addresses they have are all deliverable. This is where Delivery Point Validation or DPV comes into the picture. In this article, we discuss what Delivery Point Validations or DPV is, how it can help you optimize your direct mail efforts, and more.
What Does Delivery Point Validation (DPV) Mean?
DPV or Delivery Point Validation is the process of verifying or validating whether a given address is deliverable or not. The Delivery Point Validation does not merely check that the given address is correct. It also checks the actual deliverability of the mail. The given address is checked against USPS’s official address database, and if a match is found, then the address is classified as “valid.” If a match is not found, then the address automatically gets classified as “invalid.” In other words, the given address is not a deliverable one.
You must not confuse DPV with software capable of correctly formatting a given address or whether the address falls within a valid range of addresses in USPS’s database. Instead, DPV, or rather DPV supported software, confirms that the addresses you give are real and that it is deliverable by the USPS. This is huge as far as businesses are concerned because this means they can be sure that their efforts don’t go in vain. The DPV is so accurate that it narrows down to the details as far as the apartment or house number.
When an address is submitted for DPV, it is cleaned up first, meaning that any typos or irrelevant data are taken out, and then it is formatted to the USPS-approved format. DPV even includes the ZIP+4 code, which means that the deliveries to these addresses are fast because the ZIP+4 code speeds up the processing and delivery of the postal mails. You can save up to two days in delivery time if your postal mails include the ZIP+4 code.
How DPV Helps Your Business Save Money
Save Manpower and Time
The chance of having your postal mails and packages returned by the USPS is rather high if you do not employ a DPV process. The returned mails and packages then take up further manpower for its management or disposal. Furthermore, there is also the processing time associated with the return mails and packages. Delivery Point Validation ensures that you don’t waste your time and energy by reducing the return rates of the mails significantly.
Dissatisfied Customers
An error in the address could mean that deliveries or time-sensitive documents could arrive late. No customers enjoy waiting, and if the anticipated delivery is not made in time, they may end up resenting your brand. It is even worse if you are sending time-sensitive documents like bills and invoices and they don’t reach your customers in time. DPV assures the deliverability of your posts and even provides the ZIP+4 code, which ensures that the post is delivered at the earliest.
Faulty Address Correction
In the absence of DPV-approved software, businesses sometimes end up implementing manual address correction. Such companies or businesses may even have to call up their customers personally for address correction. Not only is this less effective, but the customer may also even feel that you are a nuisance. A DPV-approved software such as PostGrid can easily find the accurate addresses and correct the addresses you have with minimal to zero error.
Analytics for Business Decisions
Businesses make decisions based on analytics and if these analytics provide inaccurate data, then it can have a domino effect and cause serious damage to its operations. This often happens when the analytics is obtained through a manual process. A DPV-approved software like PostGrid can provide you with advanced analytics that can be accurately used for getting better results for your business campaigns.
Why Use a CASS/DPV Certified Address Validation
Address validation is an integral part of the DPV process, and there is no better way to go about it than through a CASS/DPV approved address validation service like PostGrid. Why? Because a regular address verification system can be faulty because they may not have access to reliable data.
A CASS certification assures that the software can access USPS’s official address database, and hence there is practically nothing for you to worry about. You get reliable information directly from the USPS, and there is little to no risk of return mails and packages.
Why Can’t we Just Use Google?
Some of you may wonder why we can’t just use Google for validating addresses instead of using DPV mail. Although this may seem like a good idea at first, if you think about it, you will see why google is not a viable alternative to USPS certified Delivery Point Validation. Google is incapable of verifying an address or checking whether it is deliverable.
All Google can do is display an approximate arena of the address on their map. Think about it. How many times has Google taken to the middle of nowhere and then declared out loudly, “We’ve arrived at your destination”. So it is not hard to understand why you need a USPS certified Delivery Point Validation if accuracy matters for your business.
Conclusion
Delivery Point Validation or DPV is an important process that could make the difference between an effective, successful campaign and an unsuccessful one. With DPV, you get to know whether an address is actually deliverable by the USPS or not; this makes all your direct mail effort streamlined and calculated.
The best way to ensure DPV is carried out for your addresses is to employ a CASS-certified address validation software like PostGrid. It makes sure that all your addresses are valid and deliverable. It even goes so far as to standardize the addresses as per the format defined by USPS and gives you the ZIP+4 codes, which lead to an easy process and faster delivery of the postal mails.
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source https://www.postgrid.com/what-is-delivery-point-validation-dpv/
source https://postgridplatform.blogspot.com/2021/11/what-is-delivery-point-validation-dpv.html
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