摘要 |
A method for responding to a notice by the U.S. Postal Service, or a foreign postal service, that a mail piece is undeliverable. In this method, an amalgamated recipient data center (ARDC) executes a search pattern designed to efficiently determine whether the address used is valid (so that the mail piece was returned erroneously), or whether there is a new address, possibly not reported to the postal service. The search pattern used for a search is based on the endorsement indicated by the postal service explaining why the mail piece was returned. A search pattern for a returned mail piece has search objectives corresponding to the endorsement on the returned mail piece, and aims at achieving the search objectives by executing one or more search processes, each process involving one or more data sources or sources of data. The search processes of a search pattern can be executed in parallel or sequentially, but sequentially executing the search processes is often more efficient. The search is continued to completion unless a success factor reaches a predetermined confidence threshold.
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