Duplicate data still costs charities money, says Experian
Howard Lake | 15 December 2008 | News
Businesses including charities are still wasting money by sending duplicate mailings to supporters and donors, according to a new report from Experian®, the global information services company.
The report titled ‘Making sense of a crowded nation’, includes ./guidance for organisations on how to optimise their contact data management strategies.
Research commissioned for the report reveals that 85% of businesses across the UK’s main industry sectors – from financial services, retail and FMCG companies, through to charities – neglect to remove duplicate names and addresses from their mailing campaigns every month.
The survey is based on responses from 150 businesses across the UK’s major industry sectors.
None of the charities questioned believe their databases storing donors’ names and addresses were 100 per cent accurate, and only 10% thought that their current processes for removing duplicates were ‘highly effective’.
Only 3% cent of charities surveyed undertake or outsource de-duplication exercises every month, compared to 31% of financial services organisations and 10% of those in the FMCG/retail sector.
The scale of the potential problem of duplicate data is indicated by the fact that, according to the survey, 40% of charities send bulk communications more than once a month and 53% estimate that over 50,000 contacts are included in each mailing.
Perhaps surprisingly, 59% of charities surveyed said that environmental impact is not a priority in their decision making around campaigns.
Stuart Johnston, UK Managing Director of Experian QAS, comments: “One in four UK businesses still rely on manual de-duplication, which is a shocking statistic. Aside from the tough economic climate businesses are operating in, repeatedly mailing a customer with the same offer sends out a poor message about the company’s brand and its concerns about the environment.”
He added: “Customer management is critical in today’s climate and it starts with having accurate and up to date data. Our research serves as a real wake-up call to businesses and it is critical that they take advantage of technology to identify, remove and prevent duplicates on their databases.
www.qas.co.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.