NZ Post Update - Address Accuracy Percentage (AAP)

SOA is gone! Please meet AAP…

Have you heard about the changes to the NZ Post address quality requirements for bulk mail lodgement?

As of the 1st February 2021, AAP (Address Accuracy Percentage) has replaced the existing SOA (Statement of Accuracy) process as the mechanism for pricing based on the overall address quality of the bulk mail lodgement. The AAP will be calculated on addresses in the Lodgement Data File with Valid Postcodes only, to determine the applicable Pricing Tier (addresses with Invalid Postcodes will be priced separately).

As a result of the change, there are several important implications to consider. Most notably, the fact that quality assessment and final pricing will be conducted by NZ Post at lodgement, not in advance via the SOA Certificate as was the case prior to the 1st February.

The quality assessment itself will also change and is now based on the following two components:

• Zone - The allocation of addresses across four defined “zones”, each with distinct pricing
• Quality - The method to assess address quality itself will also change, namely with respect to the quality of postcode, relative to the address it is held against.

This now puts a high priority on address quality, with the risk of significant increases to postage costs if not well managed.

So where to from here?

Marketsoft has been working with NZ address data for decades, providing support for our customers. You don’t want to be caught out by these changes and find that you have been slugged with unforeseen postage costs when your mail file is lodged with NZ Post. Like we’ve been doing for so many years, we can help prevent any bill surprises, by applying our data services so that you’ll know what to expect in your NZ Post invoice, and more importantly, gauge how deliverable your addresses are. In short, we provide the following services to address any changes due to the introduction of the AAP requirements:

• NZ specific address hygiene and quality management
• New AAP Reporting to understand in advance the predicted pricing of a given campaign or customer universe.

Our recommendation

Unlike SOA which effectively “insured” postage costs for 12 months, AAP is variable for each mailing and so our advice would be to perform hygiene and AAP reporting prior to each mailing.

Please feel free to get in touch with our team to discuss this further and get that mail piece delivered to your target addresses.