Background
Here we look at recent online data cleansing projects for two companies that had unreliable records in their databases. Each company wanted to check their data against multiple suppression files such as movers and deceased as well as flagging those records that had activated mailing and telephone preference services.
On a daily basis, an average of 9,590 households move, 1,496 people get married, and 1,500 people die. All of these events had affected the reliability of their data. Both companies involved knew the value of cleansing their data regularly and needed to highlight any discrepancies.
Solution
Each company chose Hopewiser’s quick and easy online solution Address Cleanse, which gave them immediate access to the latest in-built Postcode Address File (PAF) and suppression files (Deceased and Movers).
It is simple to use, meaning they were up and running within minutes, and it also includes a fast, user-friendly wizard with helpful tips which guided them through the process.
They also took advantage of the free sample data audit prior to paying for the full data cleanse.
PROJECT 1
The client uploaded 2,888 records into Address Cleanse. The solution found 91 deceased records, 626 Goneaway records and removed 92 records that were flagged as either MPS or TPS (Mailing Preference Service or Telephone Preference Service). The total cost of all these suppressions and verification was £211.98.
PROJECT 2
15,796 client records were validated against the PAF. They also found 908 deceased records, 1,663 Goneaway records and 2,138 records removed as they were on either MPS or TPS. Cost for this was £658.46.
Result
Using the numerous suppression files built into Address Cleanse enabled the companies to validate their data across multiple trusted sources. The costs for each project were minor if you compare to sending mail to an inaccurate database.
For example:- If Project 2 sent a 1st Class Letter through a franking machine with Royal Mail Mailmark technology at 61p, their mailing costs would have been £9,635.56. By validating their data and removing suppressions they ended up with a database of 11,087 records, so their mailing costs would be £6,763.07. They spent £658.46 to clean the data which based on the example here would result in them saving £2,214.03.
“The benefits of data cleansing are endless. Ensuring our customers’ addresses are up to date as well as removing deceased persons from our mailing list will help increase customer satisfaction as well as protect our brand image.”
, updated 12th August 2019.