There are several benefits organizations see from a single customer view. A consolidated view helps with business intelligence, staff efficiency, marketing campaigns and effectiveness, collections in billing and the overall customer experience.

There are several reasons why organizations struggle to create a single view. First, many organizations house several databases, which collect unique data and are used by different departments. This siloed approach leads to duplicate database records, inconsistent data entry and less tailored customer interactions.

All of these scenarios lead to inconsistent data spread out across the organization. To leverage the information, organizations need to ensure consistent data entry across the organization, identify patterns of data errors and leverage matching technology.

Regular database maintenance needs to take place to ensure information is accurate and duplicate records are merged. This regular cleaning will help businesses achieve a single customer view and improve a variety of business processes.

While there are many components and challenges to big data, data quality needs to be a part of any strategy. With the proliferation of data via a greater variety of channels, organizations are working with more information than ever before, but it can be hard to keep all of that information accurate.

The concept of big data can be divided into 5 categories and data quality fits within each.

1. Volume is the amount of information stored and aggregated, which often lead to duplicate information and incorrect data entry.
2. Variety focuses on the assortment of information, including structured and unstructured varieties. Most organizations struggle to even format data, thereby affecting analysis.
3. Velocity is the speed at which data is acquired and accessed. Businesses need accurate data and a holistic view of the database to properly access data at the speeds required.
4. Veracity is the accuracy of information, which is certainly related to data quality.
5. Value is related to the business benefit for better data practices and aggregated analytics.

To gain the benefits of big data, businesses need to make sure the information feeding those analytics is accurate. Get as much structured information right within your system and put automated processes in place. These tools will allow you to ensure data quality and let staff spend more time on other aspects of your big data initiative.

To achieve a customer-centric strategy, many businesses are looking to tailored marketing, one-to-one customer service, brand loyalty and insight-led collaboration. All of these customer-centric strategies rely on accurate customer information and strong analytical abilities. Without accurate data, an organization may not be able to generate actionable intelligence.

There are several common road blocks to accessing the data required for customer-centric initiatives. First, information is often siloed. There are different databases and records based on individual channels or departments. It is difficult for organizations to aggregate and manage information in one central place.

Next, there may be poor data quality. Overall in the industry, there is a lack of verification techniques and a large number of individuals who can change information. In fact, a recent Experian QAS study found that 94 percent of businesses believe some of their customer and prospect information might be inaccurate.

Finally, businesses struggle to match new data to an existing record. Often, information is placed in a non-standard format that is difficult to consolidate and analyze.

To correct these road blocks, organizations need to create a plan around accurate data for their customer-centric strategy.

To correct these road blocks, organizations need to create a plan around accurate data for their customer-centric strategy. This should include standardization rules, verification techniques at the point of data capture and enhanced searching capabilities.

Customer-centric strategies are extensive and require many elements, just don’t forget the data quality in your planning.

Today, many businesses operate channels within siloed environments, segmenting information and interactions. Unfortunately, the consumer judges a business based on their overall experience and expects the same level of engagement regardless of the channel. If a consumer has a bad experience at one touch point, it will affect buying patterns across the organization.

As part of an omni-channel experience, businesses must create a consistent dialogue that extends across all channels and points of contact to produce a stronger brand identity. To achieve a consistent approach, businesses need to have parallel messaging, personalized call center experiences and better business intelligence. This will allow customers to interact with the organization in a positive way, central to their wants and needs.

However, to gain that business knowledge, stakeholders need to ensure the accuracy of consumer information. Here are two ways businesses can achieve this business knowledge.

1. Create a centralized, accurate data source – Often organizations segment information across departments. By having one database, staff can understand preferred points of interaction, the consumer purchase history and other preferences.
2. Ensure contact data quality – Contact information is consistent across records and can serve as a set of unique identifiers to help in consolidating duplicates. Ensure the accuracy of contact information to help create one record for each customer.

Sit down with your team to determine how accurate customer information can improve your omni-channel experience.

All of this online ordering means one thing – shipping. Retailers are now playing Santa, needing to make sure the sleigh arrives before Christmas, to the right location, with the right gift. As many retailers know, shipping can be expensive and time-consuming, especially during the holiday season.

With margins low and free shipping offers everywhere, retailers need to keep fulfillment costs low. One way to do that is through successful package delivery. Retailers can do this by ensuring their consumer information is as accurate as possible.

Data quality can seem boring when we think about the overall holiday season strategy. However, if incorrect or incomplete, this basic piece of information can cost retailers thousands of dollars in return shipping fees and lost employee efficiency, not to mention customer dissatisfaction.

Even with this knowledge, retailers are struggling to keep data accurate. According to a recent Experian QAS study, 86 percent of retailers suspect that their customer and prospect data might have errors.

Even with this knowledge, retailers are struggling to keep data accurate. According to a recent Experian QAS study, 86 percent of retailers suspect that their customer and prospect data might have errors. On average, respondents believe that as much as a quarter of all contact data might be inaccurate.

eRetailers are up against a unique challenge when collecting consumer information online. While you would think self-entered contact details would generally be accurate, information entered online is often the dirtiest in a database. This is because details are frequently entered quickly by untrained individuals – the consumers themselves. During the holiday season, information can be more at risk when consumers are entering addresses other than their own, like those of friends and family.

While many retailers already have verification processes in place, some use back-end techniques that validate details after a consumer has left the site. In this scenario, if an error is found, the retailer has to call the consumer to correct the address. Phone calls can waste valuable employee time and delay the shipment.

Retailers should check to see if current verification practices are providing a worthwhile ROI. Any percentage point of error can be exacerbated by increased volume at peak times in the holiday shopping calendar.

Stakeholders can check accuracy levels by reviewing data. Businesses should ask themselves:

• Are addresses complete?
• Are shippers charging extra fees because a suite or apartment number is missing?
• How many packages are returned each month?

From there, retailers should optimize the verification process. Make certain that information entered during the checkout process is as accurate as possible. A small change can make a big difference.

This holiday season, make sure you are helping Santa by giving him good directions and accurate addresses to direct his sleigh!

Much has changed since last holiday season. You are probably already aware that ISPs have significantly modified their filtering processes, putting heavy weight on engagement to determine a sender’s reputation and whether or not an email should get delivered to the inbox. In past holiday seasons, many marketers have often taken advantage of this time of year as a reason to “blast” more messages and promotions to its entire subscription list. While this strategy, as you could imagine, often can generate more revenue, it can now negatively impact deliverability. The truth is that deliverability rates decline during the holiday season.

The truth is that deliverability rates decline during the holiday season.

Engage early
We always encourage our clients to try to win back and re-engage inactive subscribers year round.  While re-engagement may not always be first priority on a marketer’s “to-do list,” having a list of highly engaged subscribers come holiday time is imperative.

During the holidays, think about the frequency in which you email your subscribers. Are your offers personalized? Are they relevant? As subscribers take more control over their inboxes, marketers must still be mindful to treat their subscribers as individuals and make their holiday messages resonate with their audience. Remember, the more relevant your messages are, the more likely a subscriber is to engage and interact.

Mailing to unengaged or disengaged subscribers can negatively impact your ability to deliver holiday messages to your best customers!

You know your customers, but ISPs don’t
From an ISP’s point of view, engagement is based solely upon how a subscriber interacts with your emails in that one email box. Unfortunately, ISP’s don’t have the data to go beyond this channel like you do. Regardless of how frequently a subscriber engages with your brand in other channels, you must ensure they are engaged in the email channel particularly.

You’ve got the data. Utilize what you know about your customers to ensure email engagement. Today’s shoppers expect high levels of personalization and relevancy. We also encourage our clients to leverage all touchpoints and channels to connect with customers and encourage them to engage via email.

Point of sale address collection
Point of sale is always the highest risk for collecting bad addresses – especially during the holiday season. Most cashiers are extremely busy and aren’t incentivized to enter accurate or even real email addresses. Thus, it is important that you utilize list hygiene services like Experian QAS, and avoid mailing to ‘fake’ addresses.

For more tips and strategies on collecting email addresses at point of sale, download Experian CheetahMail’s white paper, Point of sale email: Managing compliance, privacy and deliverability with in-store email acquisition.

Set expectations
Set expectations with subscribers about the types of communications they will receive and how often they will receive it from you. Welcome emails are a great opportunity to communicate subscription benefits, as well as set expectations – then don’t deviate from these promises. When you over-mail customers during the holidays, your messages have a higher chance of being marked as spam or customers unsubscribing – thus reducing your engagement rating with ISPs.  Just because companies like Groupon or Living Social may email their subscribers every day, does not mean that your customers are expecting the same from your brand. You must do what works best for your customers, your brand and your engagement strategy.

If you do have subscribers that may not want to engage with you as often as others, it’s a good practice to offer an opt-down subscription, rather than simply an opt-out.  This gives control to the subscriber and allows them to choose frequencies and types of communications that are most relevant to them.

New rules – so now what?
Our advice is still the same as it has always been: send engaging messages that are relevant to your own customers. Be strategic with your holiday campaigns and utilize email marketing technology to treat your subscribers as individuals. Leverage the holiday season to increase engagement levels, while understanding the risks associated with mailing to inactives.

If you follow these simple guidelines, happy holidays are sure to come!

For more information about deliverability and ISP engagement filtering, download Experian CheetahMail’s white paper: Three pillars of successful email deliverability.

Here is a quick and easy reference guide by Experian CheetahMail to help you follow point of sale email acquisition best practices. Remember, best practices start before point of sale and continue after the transaction.

For more information on managing compliance, privacy and deliverability with in-store email acquisition, download our latest Point of sale email white paper.

With the proliferation of the Internet and mobile technology, today’s consumer operates differently and expects more from their favorite brands. To adapt to that new American consumer, marketers are using highly targeted strategies to drive interest. These can be messages that are relevant to a few hundred consumers or detailed one-on-one communications that target individuals at the point of sale or online.

But some marketers struggle to execute these tactics effectively. Most segmentation is currently done prior to a campaign, meaning that marketers determine which message a consumer will receive before ever interacting with that individual. Unfortunately, with the rapid nature of purchasing decisions and buying transactions, businesses often miss opportunities because it takes too long to get the right message to the right consumer.

To keep up, marketers need to collect intelligence at the point of contact so they can understand each individual consumer’s habits and preferences during that connection. This intelligence can then feed modeling algorithms that enable automatic offers based on an individual’s preferences.

To develop a strategy around real-time marketing intelligence, marketers should take the following steps:

1. Clean existing data – at the root of any intelligence strategy is data. Information determines a company’s ability to reach target individuals – and understand who they are and what they’re interested in. Unfortunately, if the data that feeds intelligence efforts is inaccurate, marketers are simply unable to communicate with or understand consumers. Ensuring the validity of contact information, internal records and third-party data elements helps organizations target consumers and ensures that sophisticated analysis is as precise as possible.
2. Identify strategies – organizations should analyze their target markets and determine which communication channels could benefit from a more personalized customer experience. Marketers should decide how they want to change each communication to help drive the desired action from each consumer. Consider personalizing website displays based on geographic regions, customizing an introductory message or revamping loyalty campaigns based on purchase history and consumer interests.
3. Real-time intelligence – marketers should build models to help predict the best offers for each target audience. These models can be designed to take into account demographic and behavioral information, as well as purchase history and internal data. Marketers can feed these models with intelligence gained at the point of contact to prompt consumers in real time with specific, relevant offers.

As marketers continue to enhance and refine targeting efforts, it’s important to gain customer insight. Those who leverage these advanced technologies and strategies will create stronger customer engagement.

Segmenting customers and taking measurable action in real time are advanced techniques that appeal to many marketers today. Achieving this level of interaction allows organizations to optimize marketing efforts and provide the right offer at the right time to the right consumer.

Welcome to the future, home of the digital landscape, populated by smartphone users always seeking the newest technologies. For consumers this is a very exciting time, but for businesses it can be a bit daunting. With more and more options available for consumption, how do businesses adapt?

According to ecommerce-guide, 82.2 million Americans own smartphones. They use their phones to search the Internet, compare products and even make purchases. In fact, Neilsen.com predicts that nearly half of all the worldwide sales will be purchased on smartphones by 2013. So how can businesses be successful in this new digital landscape?

To be successful in a mobile world, you must create a mobile-optimized website.

To be successful in the now, think back to what you did to become successful when you launched your first website. It’s time to go back to the basics. To be successful in a mobile world, you must create a mobile-optimized website.

Think about your website now. What are the most popular pages, what path do you want your visitors to take? Picture how your visitors would use your website in an ideal world; now create a simplified version of your website highlighting those strengths. Shorten the text so that scrolling isn’t necessary. Add buttons and calls-to-action so visitors can easily call and email you. Include forms that are mobile-optimized and easy to fill out with a touch screen. By thinking about the consumer’s experience and implementing the things that you would look for on a mobile site, you will place your company ahead of the competition.

Another perk of a mobile website includes a faster site and load time. Because a mobile-optimized website is smaller with fewer pages and less options, it operates at a much faster speed and will create a much more enjoyable experience for your visitors.

In addition to improving the customer experience, it will also be easier for your customers to find your site. Google recognizes mobile sites and increases relevant rankings for people who are searching from their mobile device. Maybe your competition ranks above you on a PC, but if they don’t have a mobile site, then you will rank above them on a mobile device. So someone searching for your service from a mobile device will happily land on your easy to use mobile site.

In order to ensure success in the digital world, be sure to implement the same innovations and safe-guards you would put on your website as well. Invest in an m-commerce platform so that the purchase process from your mobile site is seamless and user-friendly. To account for consumers’ hesitations about buying on a mobile device, be sure to add data quality and security tools to your website and m-commerce platform.

According to a recent data quality study by Experian QAS, of those companies implementing digital techniques and collecting mobile contact data, only 30 percent manage its accuracy at the point of entry. This is worrisome in regards to the quality of the data companies are collecting from these types of sites. As mistakes are more easily made on keyboards and touch pads of mobile devices, companies should be taking extra caution that they are collecting only the most accurate information. By meeting the demands of the digital consumer, companies are broadening their audience. However, not employing data quality tools simultaneously will hurt the competitive advantage they are receiving.

Unlike in “Back to the Future,” we cannot hop in the DeLorean and return to 1985. The future is upon us and in order to be successful, businesses must adapt to the changing digital landscape. To succeed at this, companies need to remember one key thing: go back to the basics. Think about how companies became successful in the dotcom age and apply those learnings to now.

Create a well thought out mobile website. Optimize it for search and m-commerce. Ensure it is safe for users to use. Instill data quality best practices to keep your database clean. Most of all, think outside the box and innovate to remain ahead of the competition.

There are two types of NCOA^Link processing available – Full Service Providers with 48 months of change of address (COA) data and Limited Service Providers/End User Mailers with 18 months of COA data. Unfortunately, some who use NCOA^Link regularly (monthly or bi-monthly) don’t understand the differences between the 18 and 48 month databases or the benefits they provide.

In four recent tests, each of the mailers used a Limited Service Provider for the previous year for their processing.  When these files were matched to the Full Service NCOA^Link database, the overall average match rate was 1.66%.  Of these matches, just over one half of one percent (or 34 percent of the total matches) had a Move Effective Date that was over 18 months old, which means they would not be picked up by a Limited Service Provider.

Coding additional records with ZIP+4^™ codes and correcting some of the records with missing/invalid information by using proprietary processes beyond CASS™ also means a significant number of additional valid NCOA^Link matches will be identified. In four tests against four other Full Service Providers who did not have these proprietary processes, there was an average of 7.5% additional valid NCOA^Link matches that they did not get.  One word of warning about these proprietary services – there are some companies offering these today where the quality is not good, so you need to be careful of which service provider you use to do this.

The sequence of processing that includes NCOA^Link can also provide significant benefits if done correctly. Running NCOA^Link before identifying duplicates will identify additional movers. In a recent test for a large mailer, my company moved 3.86% of the records via NCOA^Link.   Of these moves, 19.6% of them became duplicates.  This increased the number of duplicates identified by 2.42% or by .75% of the input records.

But there is also value in running NCOA^Link again just before the file goes to the printer.  This is primarily due to the move dynamics in the U.S.  Since NCOA^Link is updated weekly and 15 percent of the population moves each year, typically for every week since NCOA^Link was last run, about one quarter of one percent of the records being processed will have moved. It is cost effective to run Last Effort COA for almost all of our clients where it has been two weeks or more since NCOA^Link was last run.

Using all or some of the recommendations below when using NCOA^Link® will provide significant benefits to your company :

Use a full service provider for NCOA^Link processing. For those companies with an end-user license or those who are currently using a Limited Service Provider, at least semi-annually and possibly even quarterly, records should be processed by a Full Service Provider to pick up older moves that would otherwise be missed. 

• Use a service provider that has proprietary processes to accurately apply ZIP+4^TM codes to additional records and correct records with missing/invalid apartment numbers.  If your current provider does not have these capabilities, at least twice a year have your database cleaned by a company that does have these capabilities and that accurately makes the adjustments to the address.
• Run NCOA^Link® before deduping to identify additional valid duplicates.
• Consider running Last Effort COA if it has been two weeks or more since NCOA^Link was last run on the records

Applying these recommendations could provide a benefit of about $20 per thousand records mailed in terms of increased response and reduced wasted advertising.

In addition, companies who apply these steps will improve mailing results while having a more accurate and complete view of customers.