Now, in addition to our batch processing service, this powerful tool is available on-line, (exclusively at this website), for interactive queries twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

If you would like to try the service out just click here to sign up.

Any organization, no matter how small, can now have access to the new address for someone who has moved, providing they can demonstrate that they are in possesion of the old name and address. Due to privacy legislation and licensing restrictions imposed by Canada Post, This service is only to be used for the purposes of updating a database that is used to send mailings.

The Post Office estimates that 16%-18% of Canadians move each year and the vast majority of them complete a Change of Address Notice at their local postal station. This information is entered into a database that currently contains over ten million records, dating back six years.

The database is then used by the Post Office to redirect mail addressed to the old address, ensuring that individuals and businesses continue to receive correspondance after they move. But the service is only intended to provide a short term solution and usually ends after three months.

Unfortunately most of us assume that the redirection will continue and we never get around to notifying most of the organisations who have our names on their files. That may include magazines we subscribe to, charities we have donated to, catalogues we have purchased from or retail stores we have shopped at, to mention only a few.

As a licensee of this database we are able to offer National Change of Address (NCOA) services to our clients, correcting old names on their databases, enabling them to re-establish communication with customers, donors or members who might otherwise be lost.

Every mailing list processed at our facility, no matter how small, is compared to the NCOA database prior to mailing and usually results in us redirecting from 4% - 8% of the address to a more current location. Our systems are able to track movers through multiple moves that may take them from one side of the country to the other, or just to a different unit within the same apartment building. We even provide foreign addresses when the move takes them oversees.

While we currently process in excess of three million names each day through our NCOA software, there are many companies who for one reason or another do not use a Mailing Service such as WESTMINSTER to process their lists.

Now anyone with a connection to the Internet can take advantage of this useful service to find the new address for anyone who has moved within Canada during the last three years.

There are no setup fees, long term committments or software to purchase. Just register on the site to open an account, and buy a credit package from as little as $15. Depending on the quantity of credits you buy at one time, it costs as little as $1 per new-mover address we supply. There is no charge to use the search engine if we do not provide a forwarding address.

As an added bonus, we can optionally try to supply the current phone number for the name you are looking for at no extra cost. And we do this even when we cannot find a new address for you. It's like having your own personal phone book on the Internet.

So what are you waiting for? There's no risk, so signup today!

How much does it cost to acquire a new customer or donor? What is the value of their business to you each year? This is a good measure of how much it costs you to lose them when they move, but forget to notify you of their new address.

Our experience shows that most lists can benefit from NCOA services, with an average of 4%-8% of the names having an old address that could be redirected to the current location.

But the benefits are much more valuable than just address correction:

Mail with out-of-date addresses costs the same amount of money for postage, materials and preparation as the rest of your promotion, yet it's certain to end up in a landfill site either because the Post Office returns it as undeliverable or the current occupant puts it in the nearest trash can.

That depresses response rates and your cash-flow needlessly. It may also result in wasteful duplicates because the mover may have found their way back on to your list at their new address and you have no way of identifying that the two names are related.

Even during the period when the Post Office is redirecting mail, there can be significant time delays before people receive your message, affecting cash flows for time-sensitive promotions.

For mailing lists from 1,000 to 100,000,000 names, it makes sense to use our batch services at least once or twice each year. Remember, you will only ever know that someone has moved if their mail is returned to you and that only accounts for a portion of the names on your list which are out of date.

With rates as low as $2 per thousand names, (depending on list size), the cost is negligible compared to the benefits and will dramatically improve deliverability and response.

Your data can be provided on disk, tape, CD or via email or FTP transfer, with encryption if required. We normally provide Address Correction services at the same time, adding or correcting postal codes, fixing mis-spellings of street or city names and adding street types and directionals where they are missing or wrong.

While we're working on your data, we can also look for wasteful duplications, and provide other valuable data enhancements, all at the lowest costs in the business. We can also provide a mailing quote too. Think of it as spring-cleaning for your mailing list!

But people and business move every day of the week. So when mail is returned to your office as "Moved, Address Unknown" you now have a powerful tool at your fingertips: Just visit this website, using the personalized URL that is provided at the time you sign up, and you can obtain a current address immediately for as little as $1.

You'll keep in touch, and much more important, you'll keep a customer. And that's worth much more than $1.