Most companies’ databases hold between 15 and 40 per cent inaccurate information, taking a toll on marketing budgets, management time and customer goodwill, according to data specialist PAR.
The current market turmoil has added to the problem by accelerating change in businesses across Europe. PAR is making around 10,000 changes a day to its Scandinavian databases alone, as company moves, mergers and bankruptcies gather pace.
The Swedish company, which owns the pan-European EuroContactPool database, has addressed the issue with the launch of a new product: B2B Quality Assurance.
B2B Quality Assurance takes matching and enhancement services to a new level. It fully integrates PAR’s databases with its clients’ data and a new standard of matching software links up to 95 per cent of records between the two.
When matching has taken place, the receiving database is automatically de-duplicated, cleaned and enhanced with useful information such as: current postal address, industry codes, contact details for the company and decision-makers, or key financial information.
Once their information has been cleaned and enhanced, clients can upload data straight on to their systems using compatible file formats. They can also subscribe to changes that happen on their live customer data so that an amendment to the PAR main database is replicated in their own.
Because the enhancement services operate at field level, only the changes, such as a new telephone number, are transferred to the matched data. This means that client companies don’t have to re-match and upload entire company records, saving cost and time.
PAR’s ‘One By One’ service allows clients to search its database and upload individual customer records onto their system, finding new prospects and securing overall data quality on their customers. Records uploaded through One by One are also flagged in PAR’s databases, monitored and updated along with the rest of the data.
Per Löfgren of PAR says: “Constant and accelerating change in the business environment is making customer database management a full-time job. Our B2B Quality Assurance service enables marketing and sales teams to stop worrying about keeping their records current and start concentrating on using their data effectively”.
“Survival in the current uncertain marketplace is dependent on understanding your company’s market position, finding more ‘ideal’ customers and drawing up communications strategies built on accurate information,” says Per Löfgren.