How to Capture Clean Data on Web Forms: 1-2-3

A Melissa Data White Paper How to Capture Clean Data on Web Forms: 1-2-3 Creating a Data Quality Firewall

2 How to Capture Clean Data on Web Forms: 1-2-3 Creating a Data Quality Firewall INTRODUCTION The chief benefi t of the Internet is the ability to effi ciently capture data on every person that fi lls out forms on your e-commerce site. These visitors have expressed an interest in your products and services making them highly valuable leads. Unfortunately, all can be lost due to something as seemingly trivial as a visitor omitting a letter or punctuation mark from an email address, transposing numbers in a mailing address postal code, or leaving out the area code of a phone number on your Web form or online shopping cart. More than 25 percent of data quality problems are caused by data entry errors by customers, which is one of the contributing factors to poor data quality costing U.S. businesses more than $600 billion each year, according to The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). Another source of frustration falsifi ed or fraudulent information. Some visitors are privacy-conscious; they input false information on Web forms to protect their privacy. But other visitors are interested in committing e-commerce fraud, which involves stolen credit card information or identity theft. And it costs merchants big an estimated $3.3 billion in 2009, according to CyberSource, a risk management solutions fi rm. With all these pitfalls, it s no surprise that Web form databases are often plagued with inaccurate, fraudulent, and duplicated data. Poor data quality can cloud your company s efforts to gain a clean, accurate, and comprehensive view of these potential customers, which ultimately leads to: Ineffi cient CRM initiatives Lost revenue, time and money Undeliverable shipments and correction charges Overstock/inventory issues Low customer retention Simply put, the ability to capture accurate data on Web forms has the potential to make signifi cant improvements to quality lead generation, customer retention, delivery times, and ultimately, the bottom line of your e-commerce site. 3 WAYS TO OPTIMIZE WEB FORMS TO IMPROVE LEAD QUALITY Simple client-side scripts can be used to prevent non-formatted data from entering your database. For example, scripts that require a 10-digit number to be entered, or the @ symbol on an email address, can be added to Web forms. But implementing a more robust data quality solution one that creates a

3 fi rewall to protect the integrity of your company s database is a smart move to make, especially when operating a profi table e-commerce site. A fi rewall serves as a security mechanism to ensure that nothing malicious penetrates your database, such as spam, computer worms and trojans and to prevent unauthorized access. The same concept can be applied to bad contact data a data quality fi rewall blocks bad data from infecting a database at the point-of-entry. If a potential customer, or your own data entry personnel, submits invalid contact information, a real-time data verifi cation solution can be applied to prevent bad data from entering your database. Thus, data coming in through an online shopping cart, Web form, or call center is verifi ed and corrected before it even enters your company s CRM system hence, a data quality fi rewall. In order to take full advantage of the value of Web form contact data, you can choose to employ three key data quality tactics verify, match, and locate your customer data. CONTRARY TO POPULAR OPINION, SHIPPING IS NOT FREE When your visitors fi ll out forms and place orders on your website, it s natural to assume that they d fi ll out their correct contact information. But nobody s perfect. A Web visitor might accidentally transpose the wrong ZIP Code in the mailing address section, or misspell the street address, or forget to put in the apartment or suite number. Incorrect addresses not only delay deliveries they cost you additional money. In fact, FedEx and UPS charge $10 for every shipment that requires address correction. Here s an example of how much bad data could be costing you: 1. Verify your data. Verifying your data is the most important, cost-effective step to achieving an accurate Web form submission. It can help you reduce undeliverable or delayed shipments, wasted postage and labor, and avoid the cost of calling wrong phone numbers. The end result is a cleaner, more accurate database of new customers and prospects one that will fuel better response rates, enhance customer database analysis, improve customer satisfaction, and ensure more effi cient delivery of your company s products and services. Real-time data verifi cation not only prevents bad data from entering your database, it can also standardize spelling, punctuation, and abbreviations, etc. Some real-time data verifi cation solutions can also append postal codes, update area codes, and add in missing suite or apartment numbers to the address data you capture. What is your average customer order value? How often does a customer order per year? How many orders do you receive per year? What is the average shipment expense? What is the average cost for reshipment? Delayed or undeliverable packages per year Cost of address correction (by shipper) Cost of reshipment Total cost because of incorrect delivery address $100.00 4x 400 $5.00 $10.00 36 $90.00 $90.00 $11,200

4 Dealing with Fictitious Submissions And real-time verifi cation can also help with those fi ctitious form submissions that plague every site offering free downloads of company literature, coupons, etc. Visitors who intentionally enter fi ctional information on Web forms, do so to prevent follow-up contact. Who wants to have a CRM system a main lead generator mechanism muddled with false customer contact information? Implementing a data verifi cation routine that also includes email verifi cation can prevent these privacy-conscious visitors from spoofi ng your forms with bogus contact information like MickeyMouse@disney.com. The Need for a Data Verification Solution Web form automation is a double-edged sword. While Web form automation is fast and effi cient, it can inadvertently lead to more misdirected shipments and return shipping fees. For example, once a customer fi lls out their contact information on your Web form, the data is immediately placed on a mailing label. Your shipment is then mailed, with no knowledge that the address could be wrong which would make the shipment undeliverable, costing your company wasted postage, time and money. Without a data quality solution in place there s no way of knowing whether or not your mail to/ship to addresses are correct or not, even if all fi elds of data were completed on the Web form. THE REAL COST OF BAD DATA: THE 1-10-100 RULE Customers are the foundation of your business. But imagine a scenario where you have customer service representatives submitting address information from live callers to a database. In a TDWI survey, data entry was cited as one of the leading origins of data quality problems. Industry analysts have studied the long-term costs of inaccurate data entry and their fi ndings are eye-opening. It was determined that it costs an average of $1 to verify the contact information when it is originally entered on the Web form in real-time. This $1 includes the cost of implementing an address validation solution, as well as the cost of the hourly employee, and the cost of running the computer equipment for each record. When the address solution is implemented in batch, to cleanse and deduplicate contact data after submission, it was calculated to cost around $10. Taken into account were the additional costs of computing time, transforming data from proprietary formats and the setup time to process each new batch. Some addresses submitted were considered dead entries and could not be counted as sales leads or billable customers. Finally, the cost of doing nothing was shown to be $100 per record, which includes the costs of delivered shipments, returned mail and lost marketing opportunities.

5 < GOOD VS. BAD ADDRESS > Can you tell which address is correct and which one is undeliverable? Address A 22382 Avenida Empresa Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 VS. Address B 22382 Lost Avenue Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 Address A and B both look like valid addresses. But integrating a data verification solution into your Web forms would verify that Address B is invalid, and would correct the address. < GOOD VS. BAD PHONE NUMBERS > Let s add a phone number into the mix. Which telephone number looks correct to you? Phone Number A 22382 Avenida Empresa Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 (949) 858-3000 VS. Phone Number B 22382 Lost Avenue Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 (949) 555-5731 Phone Number A and B again, appear to be valid. But a data verification solution would identify that Phone Number B contains an invalid prefix. Online retailer REAL WORLD APPLICATION Challenge: An online retailer of gourmet chocolate-dipped desserts estimated that each returned package would cost them an additional $25 in carrier fees and handling. To prevent this, the retailer needed a data quality solution that would verify its customers addresses at the point-of-entry. Their goal to ensure that every package arrives fresh and on time. Results: With a point-of-entry data verifi cation solution in place, the retailer s error rate of packages not arriving at the intended destination was less than 1 percent. And the company s customer service reps also took advantage of this automatic verifi cation solution. Instead of wasting time calling customers to re-verify addresses, the reps plug in phone orders directly onto the retailer s online site to ensure data accuracy.

6 2. Match your data. An estimated 10 percent of names and addresses in an average CRM or order management system are duplicate records. This leads to ineffi cient marketing efforts, wasted postage, paper and an inaccurate view of your customers. Detecting duplicate data and merge/purging them to achieve a unifi ed view of a customer, gives you a better window into a customer s buying habits, brand interactions, transaction history, and household relationships all of which will signifi cantly improve your company s data-driven marketing campaigns and product positioning. Identifying duplicates and merge/purging them are critical components in the data cleansing process. Unfortunately, detecting duplicate data is not as easy as it sounds. For example, a Beth Smith can be recorded as Smith, Elizabeth in another database, but Beth Smith and Elizabeth Smith are the same person. If you choose to employ deduplication, look for a vendor that utilizes advanced fuzzy matching algorithms to identify non-matching duplicate records. Fuzzy matching is a mathematical process that determines the similarities between data sets, where the outcome is neither true nor false, nor 100 percent certain hence the word fuzzy. Online pharmacy REAL WORLD APPLICATION Challenge: The online pharmacy provides prescription drug management services to its customers allowing them to view their records, place an order, refi ll, transfer and print prescriptions. But customers wouldn t always place orders the same way leading to duplicate records that could be troublesome, or even life-threatening. For example, Bob Smith might submit a new prescription under his full name, Robert J. Smith. Without a process to identify and merge/purge duplicate records, especially non-obvious duplicates there s no way the pharmacy would know that Bob Smith and Robert J. Smith are the same person, which could lead to delayed shipments, or unprocessed orders, etc. What if Bob Smith needed his medication immediately? Because the pharmacy managed its customers prescription drug interactions and history, it needed to identify and delete duplicate records. Results: With a real-time, automatic matching tool, the company saved countless hours of manually searching its database for duplicate records. The company s accuracy rate improved, and it identifi ed 10 percent more duplicates in its 1 million record fi le.

7 3. Locate your visitors. Many shoppers enjoy the convenience of going online to research a product or service, look for the nearest store location, or search for a coupon even before they actually make the purchase at the physical store. This is when utilizing geolocation technology can be advantageous for your company. A geolocation solution can capture your shopper s personal data, and other information for use in marketing efforts targeting that shopper s particular interests. Find the nearest store functionality In the world of e-commerce, one of the most common uses of geolocation technology is in the fi nd the nearest store functionality. Geolocation technologies can be used to provide customers with the store closest to their home, business, or other supplied street address. Meanwhile, Internet merchants can use geolocation data to ascertain proximity to potential customers, distance to suppliers and competitors, service areas and delivery routes. Dynamic marketing Another form of geolocation functionality involves the use of an IP locator tool. This tool helps you identify an Internet user s geographical location, i.e. country, region, city, lat/ long coordinates, postal code, ISP and domain name by tapping into an IP address lookup database without invading a visitor s privacy. IP locator technology can help you customize marketing messages to a specifi c audience based on their geographic WHAT IS AN IP ADDRESS? An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique network identifi er issued by an Internet Service Provider to a user s computer each time they log in. An example of how an IP address is displayed is: 208.77.188.1660. REAL WORLD APPLICATION Footwear manufacturer and online retailer Challenge: The national footwear manufacturer sells its products on its website and through specialty retailers. The company wanted to increase the effectiveness of their ad campaign by directly targeting customers based on their location. The retailer employed the use of an IP locator tool that would help them identify their online visitors location. Results: Since the company needed to increase visibility, sales and foot traffi c in their Chicago stores the retailer utilized the tool to launch coupons specifi c to that city s residents. The company offered 25 percent off discounts to local residents who clicked onto their site resulting in a 15 percent jump in sales for both their online venue and retail stores in Chicago.

8 location. Your prospects and customers will most likely click on your advertisement, simply because your message will be more personalized to their location. This type of dynamic ad serving enables you to tailor your own message to your most engaged prospects those who live within fi ve miles of your business. Fraud and spam prevention The rise in illegal marketing techniques like phishing and hacking resulted in signifi cant increases in credit card fraud and identity theft during the last few years. According to a recent report from CyberSource, online merchants say fraud incidents are more sophisticated than ever before. The good news 60 percent of these merchants plan on improving detection capabilities in 2010. In addition to the marketing benefi ts an IP locator tool provides, the solution can be used in other ways to prevent fraud and spam, fl ag suspicious actions, or deny service to high-risk countries. An IP locator tool can also help you gather the information you need to protect your Web forms from spam and abuse. For example, an IP locator tool can be used to identify problematic IP addresses or ranges those that have shown a propensity for spam abuse, etc. For example, you can integrate an IP locator tool into your custom programming to determine your user s location. When you identify that one potential customer is located in a high-risk area, such as Russia or West Africa, you can deny or block that IP address from even accessing your site. If your site s been hit with the same IP address for a period of time, and you ve received a slew of spam emails shortly after your site might be a victim of fraud and online abuse. Online electronics site REAL WORLD APPLICATION Challenge: An online electronics site frequently battles credit card fraud, including losses due to chargebacks from fi nancial institutions. The online retailer employed the use of an IP locator tool as a preventative measure to crack down on fraud. Results: By implementing the IP locator tool into their operation, the online retailer was able to fl ag suspicious purchases, especially those from high-risk countries known for online fraud. For instance, if a customer s credit card information, such as a billing and shipping address, are based in the U.S., but the person placing the order is logged in from an IP address in Russia the transaction would be fl agged for further investigation into the authenticity of the order. Identifying IP location minimized the company s fi nancial losses associated with credit card fraud.

9 Call center Custom applications Database Web forms IP Locator How a Data Quality Firewall Works Your database is your most valuable business asset. Without a data quality firewall, contact data is entered into your database in varying formats, from various sources with an unknown degree of accuracy. A data quality firewall will instantly verify, clean and standardize your contact data at the point-of-entry before it enters and infects your database. CONCLUSION Web forms serve to capture valuable contact data, but many times this data can contain inconsistencies, missing or incorrect information, and fraudulent data. Investing in a robust data quality fi rewall solution can help you to: Verify your data Match your data Locate your visitors Ensuring accuracy before bad data enters your CRM systems will prevent your company from dealing with lost revenue, time, ineffi ciencies and waste. Adding in IP locator technology into your data quality schematic to reduce and prevent fraud and spam should also help your e-commerce site make signifi cant improvements to quality lead generation, customer retention, and ultimately, your bottom line. ABOUT MELISSA DATA CORP. Melissa Data is a leading provider of data quality, data integration and data enrichment solutions. Melissa Data is an active member of the DMA and the DMA s List & Database Council. For over 25 years, Melissa Data has been a leading provider of data quality solutions with emphasis on U.S., Canadian, and international address and phone verifi cation, and postal software. Free trial software is available by visiting or by calling 1-800-MELISSA (800-635-4772).