It’s an uphill battle to maintain current client records. Here are some reasons why:
- 26 million people in the U.S. moved in 2024, according to North American Van Lines.
- Marriage, divorce, adoption, personal preference and other motivations drive a LOT of name changes.
- Eight out of 10 women in opposite-sex marriages take their husband’s last name, according to 2023 study from Pew Research Center. In 2023, more than 2.3 million women married in the U.S., although not all were opposite-sex unions, according to the U.S. Census.
- Between 28% to 37% of Americans change their email addresses each year, according to various marketing surveys.
- Because of email address changes and other issues, only 62% of email addresses submitted to ZeroBounce in 2024 were valid.
Despite these challenges, federal and state regulations require billers to supply statements and other transactional communications to customers that are timely, compliant, accurate and secure.
Improving data management and hygiene with Expresso
The Expresso platform provides reporting to support clients in maintaining accurate contact information for their customers. Clients can create reports that help them identify delivery problems due to problematic physical contact information, email addresses and cell phone numbers, and in some cases, provide updated contact information.
- They can be automated at a set frequency and delivered to the clients’ SFTP or by email.
- Clients also can run reports on demand at Reports Management >> Reports.
By using the information to regularly revise customer contact lists, over time companies should minimize bounced emails and texts as well as rejected records, streamlining customer data updates.
Reports also offer valuable opportunities to improve customer experience and operating performance by analyzing patterns and trends in data errors and taking steps to reduce them. For example, if customers regularly fill in one field wrong on a company portal or employees make a common mistake when keying in customer information, companies could add a drop-down menu to ensure standardization of data inputs such as states. Or if consumers skip a field, companies can build required fields so customers cannot move on without filling them out.
Catching data problems early
One of the first red flags is a report for:
- Rejected Records
These reports signify a problem with individual records, such as missing information in one or more fields or mistyped information.
To prevent errors that cause entire files vs. individual records to fail, see Tips & Tricks: Avoiding Data Input File Failures for more information.
Digital data markers
For digital communications, clients can manage data hygiene and compliance with reports such as:
- Email Status
- SMS Status
This type of report provides the delivery status of each record including Bounced or Undeliverable email address or Fail-Landline for cell phone. Clients can check each for typos or other easy corrections or follow up with the customer to obtain a valid email address or cell phone number. The updated email or phone number can be included in a subsequent file.
To ensure delivery, some clients set up an automated sequence for communications. For example, if an email remains unopened for a set number of days, then Nordis will automatically print and mail a hard copy of the communication to the customer.
Mail reports
For maintaining correct contact information for mailings, clients can leverage these reports:
- CASS/NCOA updates. Nordis automatically runs the mailing address information for all pieces through these USPS databases to identify any delivery problems during file processing. Most clients choose to create their own update frequencies in Reports Management although they can be sent via email and SFTP pickup folder. In addition, this step is required by the USPS for any mailing to receive a discounted rate.
- ACS address updates. To make up for delays in NCOA change of address updates, many clients supplement these reports with the ACS service to improve compliance and deliverability. For pieces already in the mail stream, ACS identifies incorrect addresses and updates them. Clients can set up automated reports cataloging each updated address. This is a premium service.
- Return mail processing. Nordis scans all returned mailings before securely destroying them. Clients opting for this service can create a report in Report Management that conveys the record and date scanned. This report enables clients to quickly track down and update new mailing addresses and reduce costs from undeliverable mail. This is a premium service.
Not delivering timely transactional communications can impact revenue, cashflow, company reputation, customer experience and compliance. Expresso reports help clients stay on top of data issues that affect deliverability so they can quickly correct them.
For more information about data management and hygiene reports, please contact your CSM.
