Change in Handling Returned Mail

Background

TLC has no development and no plan for development to prevent notices from being generated and mailed to accounts with a known bad address.

The Problem

Currently, when we send out notices and they are returned to the library, IT staff receives the undeliverable mail. There are instances where frontline staff may mail a letter and it is returned to the library. Regardless of which staff manage returned mail, the staff member opens the account in CARL, adds an urgent note of “returned mail” and changes the status to “See Notes”. However, CARL is unable to read notes on the account before generating a notice. When generating notices, CARL can only look at address information. Therefore, our best option moving forward is to modify the address.

The Solution

It has been decided we are going to modify our process of how we handle returned mail. While this applies to IT, it also applies to Library Staff who send letters and they are returned as well as handling accounts that have a bad address on them.

In addition to staff adding an urgent note of “returned mail” and changing the status to “See Notes”, staff will update the zip code to “00000”. By changing the zip code to “00000”, when IT pulls in the data to the Word Template and sort by zip code (current practice), the returned mail with “00000” will float to the top of the list. IT can quickly delete these notices, so they are not mailed and we are not spending money on postage for it to be returned to the library.

Scenario: Receive Returned Mail

When staff receive returned mail, they will:

1. Add an Urgent Note of “Returned Mail”
2. Change the status to “See Notes”
3. Change the zip code in CARL to “00000”

Scenario: Staff working with Guest with Returned Mail Note

When staff are working with guests to clear up a returned mail issue, they will:

1. Verify the address is correct with mail dated in the past 30 days.
   1. Staff will also verify their Account Type is correct based on the address and update as needed.
   2. When verifying/updating the address, update the zip code should be updated from “00000” to the correct zip code.
2. Remove the “Returned Mail” Urgent Note
3. Change the status to “Good”

This change is effective immediately. Accounts that have returned mail from recent months will be updated with the zip code to “00000” by end of day.