Too many people are rewarded on the volume of names they sell, process or mail -- to the detriment of data quality, not to mention the environment.
Business suppression is a case in point. As the managing director of a major business data owner and a director of the company marketing the original business suppression file, I am appalled by the lack of interest this industry seems to have in improving the accuracy of the data used. And I am appalled from two entirely different perspectives.
Our business data is as good as we can make it. Not only do we source it from the best possible foundations, in terms of legal submissions, but we telephone research all the names and responsibilities as well. Then we apply the relevant suppressions to it to make it as clean as possible. And we spend a lot of time and effort helping our clients to target effectively, to get the most from their budgets.
But we are competing with some people who prefer to stack it high and sell it cheap, regardless of quality -- and that gets everyone in this industry a bad name.
Selling quality data should be a no-brainer -- but it isn't. Whether this represents a reluctance to change or a case of turkeys being unwilling to vote for Christmas, I can assure you there are people out there who refuse to buy suppressions (saving money and reducing waste) or focus on the quality issue in favour of a cheaper rate or bigger volumes.
Waste is now on the agenda. People are sick of it, the government see a hobbyhorse and we -- the responsible data owners and providers -- will have to pick up the tab.
So I am sure data quality is rising on most agendas, but it should have been top of the list for years.
Unless we get our own house in order, and start behaving like professionals, someone else will do it for us.
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