Blog: data cleansing

Showing blogs: 1–4 of 4

Data, Data, Everywhere Nor Any Drop of Insight

Apr 23 2010

OK, so it’s not quite as catchy as the line from Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner but it describes a problem many of us marketers are facing these days.  With the proliferation of interactive technology and a significant decrease in the costs of storage, many marketers have become customer data hoarders.  As such, many of us are having a hard time finding that favorite “customer insight sweater” in a closet overflowing with customer data.  I suggest we all embark on some spring cleaning of our customer data to make sure we are deriving as much value from it as we should be.

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Good Data Hygiene Never Goes Out of Style

Jul 22 2009

"Data hygiene - the art of keeping a direct mail database clean and up-to-date - could prove to be the most irritating buzzword of 2001. But, it could be key to the success of direct mail printers."
-"Data hygiene to be your 2001 buzzword," Printing World, January 8, 2001

So, what is data hygiene?  The term "data hygiene" simply refers to a set of procedures for keeping a name-and-address database in good shape. This usually involves:

  • Ensuring the database doesn't contain duplicate records (thus, the terms "dedupe" and "merge-purge").
  • Maintaining the addresses in the U.S. Postal Service's standard format to ensure "deliverability" (by "scrubbing" and "parsing," which are other industry terms).

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Managing Customers’ Data Quality Expectations

May 13 2009

A recent client concern was raised when an unusually high number of mail pieces were returned as undeliverable by the US Post Office (USPO).  The negative impact to the customer is obvious: Not only did they spend good money on postage to mail the piece in the first place, but now they have to expend internal resources to determine the correct addresses, resubmit the documents to the USPS and field customer concerns of late and/or missing mail pieces.

Having just run the NCOA (National Change of Address) updates for the client, it was natural that the client wanted an explanation why the NCOA processing did not catch more of the undeliverable addresses.

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How to Track Down a Moving Target

Apr 21 2009

It's a fact that bringing on new customers is a very expensive and time consuming proposition. It makes sense, then, to invest in the ability to track down and retain your best customers, no matter where they may go. 

Consumers on the move (over 40 million Americans per year), complete a Change of Address card at their local US Post Office.  Those cards are compiled and published to licensed full-service providers (such as CSG's Quaero) in a database with 160 million other American consumers who have moved in the past 48 months and changed their addresses.  Our clients have access to all that rich address information when CSG Quaero runs their customer or prospect database through NCOA (National Change of Address) and can find out which of their customers are on the move.

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