DALLAS, February 27, 2020 – GIACT Systems, LLC, the leader in helping companies positively identify and authenticate customers, today announced a new report, Undeliverable as Addressed: The Staggering Cost of Returned Mail and How Proactive Identity Monitoring Can Solve the Problem, on the costly problem of returned mail as a result of deficient identity management. The report highlights the volume of consumer change events and the difficulties associated with keeping up-to-date consumer profiles; the compliance issues that follow undeliverable as addressed items; as well as best practices for implementing a proactive identity monitoring approach to streamline compliance and drastically reduce the number of returns.
Click here to download the report
According to the report, returned mail can cost businesses up to $25 per returned item which includes the additional effort required to correct the mistake and resend the item. Overall, according to the United States Postal Service, returned mail costs the mailing industry – a cost passed down to the originator, i.e., the business sending the mail – an estimated $20 million annually. What is more, returned mail can also set off an identity red flag. This can trigger the sender to investigate and revalidate the customer to ensure KYC compliance.
“If you’re a financial institution mailing account statements or an insurance company providing a policy update, the cost of a double-digit return rate on covered mail items can be in the hundreds of thousands.”
Trace Fooshee
Senior Analyst with Aite Group’s Fraud & AML Practice
“If you’re a financial institution mailing account statements or an insurance company providing a policy update, the cost of a double-digit return rate on covered mail items can be in the hundreds of thousands,” said Trace Fooshee, Senior Analyst with Aite Group’s Fraud & AML practice. “It’s an unnecessary cost. And the result of a reactive identity management approach. It’s significantly more cost efficient to proactively monitor your customer population and address change events as they occur.”
GIACT’s report also details the benefits of proactive monitoring. Proactive monitoring, i.e., investigating your customer population on an ongoing basis, includes tightening the controls around identity verification and monitoring; monitoring change events as they occur; as well as introducing diverse data sets – including traditional and non-traditional data – to improve accuracy.
“Paper mail is still a critical and, in some cases, legally required aspect of business-to-customer communication. It can also be extremely costly if your customer population contact information isn’t totally accurate,” said David Barnhardt, Chief Experience Officer at GIACT. “By proactively monitoring your customer population, companies can not only lower the cost and headache of returned mail, but also reduce fraud and streamline compliance.”
To download the white paper, click here.
— via PRNewswire
