CASS Mailing List Management & Dedup 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A mailer discovers that 30% of records on a purchased list have incorrect ZIP+4 codes. The most appropriate corrective step is:
- Remove all records with incorrect ZIP+4
- Reprocess the list through CASS-certified software to reassign ZIP+4 (Correct answer)
- Apply NCOALink to update the ZIP+4 codes
- Manually correct ZIP+4 using a printed ZIP code directory
Correct answer: Reprocess the list through CASS-certified software to reassign ZIP+4
CASS-certified software re-standardizes and reassigns correct ZIP+4 codes based on the current Address Management System database.
Question 2: What is the maximum age, in months, that a CASS certification form (USPS Form 3553) remains valid for rate qualification purposes?
- 3 months
- 6 months (Correct answer)
- 12 months
- 24 months
Correct answer: 6 months
USPS Form 3553 certifying CASS processing is valid for 6 months from the date of processing for automation rate qualification.
Question 3: In merge-purge terminology, a 'dupe' that is retained while all other copies are suppressed is called the:
- Master record
- Survivor record (Correct answer)
- Key record
- Primary duplicate
Correct answer: Survivor record
The survivor record is the version of a duplicate set that is selected to remain in the output file based on survivorship criteria defined by the mailer.
Question 4: A list with high 'multibuyer' density is generally considered more valuable because:
- It has fewer duplicate records
- It contains individuals who have responded to multiple direct mail offers (Correct answer)
- It has been processed through NCOALink more recently
- It contains a higher proportion of business addresses
Correct answer: It contains individuals who have responded to multiple direct mail offers
Multibuyers have demonstrated purchase behavior across several lists, making them statistically more likely to respond to new direct mail offers.
Question 5: Which deduplication scenario presents the highest risk of falsely merging two different individuals into one record?
- Exact match on full address and full name
- Phonetic match on surname with same ZIP code (Correct answer)
- Delivery point barcode match
- Exact match on address line 1 and ZIP+4
Correct answer: Phonetic match on surname with same ZIP code
Phonetic surname matching within the same ZIP code can merge unrelated people who share a similar-sounding last name, producing false positives.
Question 6: When a CASS-certified software vendor submits software for CASS certification testing, which organization administers the evaluation?
- Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
- United States Postal Service (USPS) (Correct answer)
- Address Management Systems (AMS) licensees
- National Change of Address (NCOA) board
Correct answer: United States Postal Service (USPS)
The USPS administers CASS certification testing and issues the official certification to software vendors whose products meet accuracy thresholds.
Question 7: A mailer applies list hygiene and reduces a 1,000,000-record list to 850,000 deliverable, unique records. The 150,000 removed records are best described as:
- Suppressed prospects
- Undeliverable and duplicate records eliminated during hygiene (Correct answer)
- NCOALink movers redirected to new addresses
- Records failing ZIP+4 assignment
Correct answer: Undeliverable and duplicate records eliminated during hygiene
List hygiene removes both undeliverable addresses and duplicate records, and all records removed through this combined process are classified as hygiene eliminations.
CASS Mailing List Management & Dedup 5
A mailer discovers that 30% of records on a purchased list have incorrect ZIP+4 codes.
The most appropriate corrective step is: