Why data quality is now a regulatory control

In today’s business world, organizations collect customer data through several channels and maintain contact records across different databases. But what good does this customer data provide you if it’s inaccurate or out of date? Proactively ensuring you have accurate, up-to-date contact data that’s ready for use allows your organization to make agile business decisions backed by high-quality data. What is data quality? Having data that is of high data quality means the data is fit for intended uses—like improved analysis and reporting or an innovative marketing strategy. Data-driven decisions in your business are only as good as the data that guides them. With a data quality solution, you can validate, standardize, enrich, and profile your data to unlock its full potential. Why is it important to test data quality? Poor data quality can have a significant impact on business performance, making it more difficult to build customer loyalty and trust, understand customer preferences, maintain accurate communication, and execute effective marketing strategies. While ensuring your customer data is reliable may seem like a complex task, Experian’s data quality solutions simplify the process by helping you collect, validate, and maintain trusted data. We’re here to help you take the right steps to test and improve your data quality. What are the steps to data quality testing? Step 1: Define specific data quality metrics Your organization needs specific metrics to test against to understand what you are targeting and need to improve.Think about how your business uses data and what problems higher quality data can solve for. Some examples include: Amount of returned mail Number of individuals with complete contact information Number of personalized offers accepted Data quality metrics that matter will vary based on your job role or focus area. If you’re part of a shipping and logistics team, you want to ensure your organization is collecting valid addresses at checkout, so you are not retroactively dealing with return packages and wasted warehouse resources. If you are an email marketer, your gauge for data quality may be how many email addresses on your list are reachable. Step 2: Conduct a test to find your baseline Driving data quality improvement throughout your organization won’t be possible unless you have defined a baseline and identified the gaps in your data that you want to improve. In our warehouse example, there are specific tools available to help you easily validate addresses before the outbound packages leave your facility. For the email marketer, our tools allow you to validate your email list data quality before launching an email campaign and watering down your engagement metrics. Step 3: Try a solution Once you have determined what business areas you need to improve your data to meet your goals, you can start addressing your specific data quality issue. In the case of the poor address data quality example, you have options, including an immediate one to fix your existing problem (batch address verification) and one that is more long term, avoiding bad addresses before they even enter your database (real-time validation at point of capture). Step 4: Assess your results After you have implemented your data quality solution, is it important to run another test against your initial metrics to understand where you saw positive improvement or to identify where you need to continue refining. The results will determine how you adjust your data quality solution. Data quality can be mean something different from one organization to the next. But as long as you are defining criteria that make sense for your business and testing against those, you can be sure you’ll be able to find ways to drive improvement. How Experian can help with data quality testing At Experian, we believe in empowering business users to better understand their data assets to transform their businesses. With Experian’s data quality tools, we provide comprehensive solutions to help your business maintain the accuracy of your customer errors, reduce errors, and avoid additional costs associated with bad data.

Are your customer addresses up-to-date? Have any of your customers moved since the last time you checked their address? Outdated, inaccurate customer address data can cost your business a lot of money and waste a lot of time. From typos when entering an address to a customer moving to a new home, it’s surprisingly easy to have incorrect address information. That’s what makes address verification so important for your business. By validating addresses, you make sure your customer data is clean and accurate. This helps your packages and mail reach their destination on time. What is address verification? Address validation is the process of checking an address for inaccuracies and fixing any problems. Address verification tools from Experian look for inaccuracies in your existing address lists. When an incorrect address is found—whether it’s due to incomplete street data or improper formatting—the system fixes the mistake. Real-time tools can also be used to check customer data as it enters your database. 4 address verification benefits Improve the customer experience: Have you ever ordered a package that arrived long after the expected delivery date? You probably didn’t order from that company again. On-time arrivals make customers happy and ready to purchase from you again. It’s important to create a good customer experience—starting with accurate addresses for on-time deliveries. Increase delivery speed: The right address formatting can potentially increase delivery speed. An address with the wrong formatting may make it to its destination, but it will likely take longer to be sorted and sent to the right distribution facilities. Address verification standardizes address formats, so shipping companies don’t have to spend as much time processing the package. Save money: Address verification saves your business money. For example, a valid address gets delivered to the correct address the first time, saving you the money you would otherwise spend on reshipping a package to the correct address. Save time: You’ll also save time when you verify your address lists. Each time a package or mail is returned to your business, you lose valuable minutes and hours updating the address and reshipping the package. By using address verification, you’ll also save time you’d spend dealing with upset customers who are wondering why they haven’t received their packages. Finally, your employees won’t have to manually update address records or delete duplicate entries. Address verification benefits in action Retail businesses: Whether you offer local deliveries or just want to send marketing mailers to the community, you’ll want to make sure you have the correct addresses for local customers. eCommerce shops: Online retailers often exclusively deliver goods through the mail. That’s why customer addresses need to be correct. You might also have customers around the globe and need international address verification to make sure you have the right formatting. With address verification, you can get packages to customers on time—whether they’re across town or the world. Business professional services: If you’re a business that works with other businesses, like a business bank or lawyer, you can use business address verification to make sure you’re sending important documents and files to the right address. Company address verification works just like residential verification using the latest business address data. Service providers: Businesses like plumbers, landscapers, and on-site computer repair companies rely on accurate addresses to get to customer appointments on time. With address verification, service business owners can feel confident knowing your crews are headed to the right location each time they make a service call. Restaurants: More and more restaurants are exploring delivery as an additional dining option for customers. Investing in real-time address verification helps you collect the correct address from the start, so your deliveries arrive fresh. Keep addresses clean and updated Having a database of clean, up-to-date addresses is important for your business. On-time, accurate deliveries and service not only help you save time and money, but also give your customers a better experience. Happy customers are often repeat customers who will recommend your business to their friends and family. Learn more about validating addresses by working with Experian’s data quality team.

In today’s hyper-connected world, maintaining clean, accurate email lists is more critical than ever. For B2B marketers, a bounced email or a deliverability error isn’t just a missed opportunity to connect—it can damage your sender reputation, waste resources, and undercut your lead-generation efforts. Enter email validation, the unsung hero of any robust marketing strategy. In this post, we’ll dive deeper into what email validation is, explore why it’s an essential part of B2B outreach, and show you why Experian’s email validation solution is the partner you need to keep your lists—snatched and thriving. What is email validation? Email validation is the process of verifying the deliverability and validity of an email address. Unlike a simple syntax check (does it have an “@” symbol?), a full email-validation workflow from Experian includes:  Syntax & format verification Ensures the address follows standard email rules—no spaces, correct placement of “@”, valid domain formatting, and more. Domain checkConfirms that the domain exists and is configured to receive email by inspecting DNS records and mail exchanger (MX) entries. Mailbox existence testReal-time check via SMTP to verify that the email address is real and active Filter spam traps and temporary email addressesFlags spam traps, emails with profanity, and temporary email addresses  By layering these checks, email validation helps your company cut operational costs, wasted time, and helps ensure they reach their customers at the right time, the first time.   Why email validation matters for B2B marketers Protect your sender reputation   Every hard bounce chips away at your domain’s credibility. With a clean list, you minimize bounce rates, keep inbox providers happy, and ensure higher deliverability for your campaigns. Reduce costs & improve ROI  Email service providers often charge based on total list sizes or messaging volumes. By removing inactive or invalid email addresses, you cut down your waste so you can better get to know your real, engaged customers.  Enhance engagement metrics  When you cut out the junk, it helps to improve your metrics to show you your true performance metrics. Open rates, click-through rates, click-to-open—are all key metrics for demonstrating program success.  Comply with data privacy regulations  GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other regulations require you to treat personal data responsibly. Using validated, permission-based email data helps you stay on the right side of privacy laws.  Fuel better insights  A clean data foundation leads to more accurate analytics, segmentation, and personalization—driving smarter decisions and more relevant B2B interactions.  The Experian advantage for email validation When it comes to email validation, not all solutions are created equal. Here’s why top B2B teams turn to Experian: Decades of trusted data expertise With 25+ years in the data quality space, Experian brings unmatched scale and accuracy to the email-validation process.  Unified, enterprise-grade platform Seamlessly integrate email validation into your existing marketing automation, CRM, or data-onboarding workflows—no siloed point solutions required.  Global coverage & compliance Validate addresses across regions and languages, all while adhering to stringent privacy-by-design principles and regulatory frameworks.  Real-time & bulk validation options Whether you need to vet single addresses at POS or cleanse massive lists in batches, Experian’s flexible API and portal allow you to validate at your pace.