BUSINESS SUPPRESSION FILE
The Business Suppression File (BSF) consists of both Company and Individual contact level information for Gone-aways. It includes data on company closures, individuals no longer at that address, and company moves or relocations. It cannot provide a new address but can either flag or remove the record as a gone-away.
DATA AUDIT
This process includes searching for invalid addresses, telephone numbers, duplicate records, movers, deceased and gone-aways. The file is matched against various data suppression and enhancement files to highlight problem areas within your database. This service is free of charge and thus enables the customer to understand which processing is necessary.
DATA ENHANCEMENT
Where data contains missing name or address elements, data enhancement can update your database by amending or allocating correct data from the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF), and CNM’s Consumer and Business Databases.
DE-DUPLICATION
De-duplication is an integrated function of name and address processing that allows us to build highly refined matchkeys at premises, family and individual level on consumer databases or premises, business, department or individual contact level on business databases.
ELECTORAL REGISTER
The Electoral Register is a database containing the names and addresses of those eligible to vote. It contains 44 million records and is commonly known as the Electoral Roll. The Edited version of the Electoral Roll contains those individuals that have opted-out of the register. Those who opt-out are asking for their details not to be used for Direct Mail purposes. At the moment the opt-out rate is approximately 30%.
FILE LAYOUT
This specifies the exact content of fields in a database, including length and name. The layout needs to be predetermined for processing purposes.
FLAGGING
By screening databases against various industry files it allows customers to Flag records that are duplicates, gone-aways, deceased, registered for Preference Services, or have invalid name and address details, without removing them from the database.
MAILSORT
If you send large volumes of mail in the UK, sorting mail prior to sending to Royal Mail can dramatically reduce costs. As long as 90% of addresses have a correct postcode, you can save up to 30% of your costs, depending upon volumes and speed of delivery.
MERGE-PURGE
When two files are merged together to form one net mailing file. In this scenario, identifying duplicates and upon what level, is essential.
MORTALITY PROCESSING
Data is screened against Industry files to identify and either remove or flag an individual that is deceased.
Mortascreen
This file represents the most detailed compilation of individuals who have died with an estate valued in excess of £5,000. The data is compiled by Smee & Ford from probate registry records for England and Wales (1989 onwards) and Scotland (1996 onwards). The file contains nearly 5 million records and is updated monthly with around 40,000 of the most recent deaths. Confidence flags are available to show how and who registered the death, eg. Life Insurance, Funeral Data or Governmental records.
Halo
Halo is a file compiled of deceased information and was developed to allow credit related organisations, such as debt recovery companies, access to such information. It also addresses the requirement for effective and early detection of deceased fraud. Halo allows records to be flagged as deceased and to give a confidence indicator to highlight the source of the originator.
The Bereavement Register
TBR (The Bereavement Register) is compiled and managed by the REaD Group. The data is gathered from information supplied by bereaved relatives via Funeral Directors & Registrars. Notifications of deaths are loaded onto TBR in as little as two weeks after someone has died. The data is updated monthly and contains in excess of two million records since its launch in 2000.
NAME & ADDRESS CLEANING
In any Direct Marketing Campaign, accurate names and addresses are essential, by screening data against the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF), addresses can be standardised, ensuring a more successful hit rate, whilst also protecting brand image and reducing possible postal returns, thus reducing costs.
NATIONAL CHANGE OF ADDRESS
The National Change of Address (NCOA) file is sourced from the Royal Mail Redirection Service. It provides the ability to identify not only the fact that the customer has moved but also offers details of where that customer has moved to. The file is built through the capture of detailed information from customers who register their move with Royal Mail. It can be used either to suppress gone-aways or to locate lost or missing customers.
POSTCODE ADDRESS FILE (PAF)
The Postcode Address File is compiled by Royal Mail and includes 27 million addresses. It is the most up-to-date and complete database in the UK for address information. By screening data against the PAF file you can reduce the number of returned mailings and improve customer satisfaction and customer profiling.
PREFERENCE FILES
Organisations are obliged by law to ensure that the wishes of individuals or companies are adhered to. Breaches of these regulations can result in severe penalties.
MPS
The Mailing Preference Service allows consumers to register their wish not to receive unsolicited direct mail.
BMPS
The Baby Mailing Preference Service is a service which allows parents who have suffered a miscarriage or bereavement of a baby in the first weeks of life to register their wish not to receive baby related mailings.
TPS
The Telephone Preference Service allows businesses and consumers to register their telephone numbers in order to not receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls.
FPS
The Fax Preference Service allows consumers and businesses to register their home or business fax number not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing faxes.
PURITY
Purity is produced from Acxiom’s InfoBase File and is compiled from the information derived from product warranties, product registrations, lifestyle questionnaires and magazine subscriptions, in conjunction with other external reference files. It is a suppression file that eliminates individuals known to be no longer living at an address with 98.1 per cent accuracy. Purity contains over 13.2 million non-residents and is updated on a quarterly basis.
SUPPRESSION
By screening databases against various industry files it allows customers to remove records that are duplicates, gone-aways, deceased or have invalid name and address details.
TELEPHONE DIRECTORY INFORMATION
An enhancement service to either append a telephone number or validate a telephone number. Additional reference tools can also be used to cross reference data against PAF, deceased and gone-away files, in order to maximise accuracy.
TELEPHONE ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY
Our telephone directory is a database containing all UK telephone numbers from several sources including Cable Companies and Mobile Phone providers. It also collates all changes to UK telephone numbers. The file is updated daily with up to 100,000 amendments. We have instant unlimited access to every available UK telephone number, including ex-directory information.
TELEPHONE NUMBER APPENDING (TELE APPEND)
Names and addresses are matched against an up-to-date electronic directory to provide accurate, up-to-date, telephone number information.
TRACING SERVICE
A fully automated trace service for locating lost customers, debtors and absconders.
UNIQUE REFERENCE NUMBER (URN)
A code supplied by the customer for each record. It allows individual searches within databases and also aids the client when data is re-imported following processing such as Suppression.
UNIVERSAL SUPPRESSION SERVICE
The Universal Suppression Service (USS) is a file compiled of gone-away and deceased information. It is compiled by The Royal Mail and includes records from The Royal Mail itself, from postal returns and redirected mail, together with information from other selected companies. The file contains over 12 million records and is updated monthly.
WALKSORT
Similar to Mailsort, this is a further sorting tool and offers the maximum amount of postage savings in return for sorting your mail to it’s actual ‘postal walk’. All addresses must have accurate postcodes and once walksort codes have been added to addresses, mail can be bundled and bagged, prior to sending to Royal Mail.
