What does a 77 value in the ank_ field mean?
I noticed some records have a 77 in the ANK_ field. What does that mean, and what should I do with them?
A 77 in the ank_ field means the record matched in the 19–48 month ANKLink database. These are older COA matches and should either be suppressed or flagged for deletion, as it is confirmed that the person or business associated with the address no longer resides there. If you'd like to retrieve the updated address, you may want to consider adding the NCOALink48 add-on module to your AccuZIP6 subscription.
The NCOA48 service will automatically update the addresses flagged by ANK (77 in the ank_ field) to their newest move address.
If you decide not to upgrade to the NCOA48 service, then records with a 77 in the ank_ field will be the same as "Moved, No Forwarding Address", since ANKLink doesn't update the address information. Because of this, there are two things you can do with a Moved, No Forwarding address:
- Flag these records for deletion (Show > NCOALink Matches (19-48 Months), then Edit menu > Delete), keeping them out of the presort process
- Replace the proper names associated with these records to Current Occupant (or some variation) and mail these with the records of your address list. Doing this assumes you are more interested in mailing to the original address than to the person or business who used to be at the given address.
- Show > NCOALink Matches (19-48 Months)
- Special > Fill
- Click on Selection
- Uncheck Close Window When Completed
- Choose the field named First
- Type Current Occupant into the Fill box
- Click Fill
- Choose the field named Last (if you have last names in that field)
- Type an underscore into the Fill box in order to delete the contents of that field
- With Selection chosen, click Fill
Now that you've dealt with those who have moved 19-48 months ago, you've just improved the quality of your address list, and if you're using this address list for a direct mail campaign, you've saved money in postage.
