Merge — Purge

Merging — Combining Files

Files with different layouts and formats can be combined into a new data file. It's called a “merge”.

Merging can be useful for several reasons such as:

  • finding duplicates between a number of files
  • preparing data to be imported into a new database
  • achieving economies of scale by performing the same tasks on multiple files at the same time

During the merge, our software can handle quite a number of different situations in terms of “dirty data” and will perform certain standardizations automatically.

Fields are taken apart:

“Mr. Fred Smith, Jr.” will be stored in 4 fields:

Prefix
First Name
Last Name
Suffix

–  Mr.
–  Fred
–  Smith
–  Jr.

“Van B.C. v7v 7v7” will be stored in 3 fields:

City
State/Prov
Zip

–  Vancouver
–  BC
–  V7V 7V7.

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Check out the page: Merge Features and Benefits Details'

Purging — Duplication Detection/Removal

Duplicates are a hassle all around. They waste postage, convolute response rates, make the sender look foolish... and in the case of fundraisers, make you look like you're throwing money out the window. Not good!

From a company database hygiene standpoint, duplicates are a problem when trying to communicate with your clients. If you have the same person twice (or more) in your company database how do you maintain accurate information for that individual, such as notes, address changes, preferences? It's next to impossible. You'd have to find ALL their records and update them all... every time. What a pain. We can find these duplicates and report them to you so they can be cleaned up.

We can remove duplicates at the individual level, company level, or household level. It's pretty tricky to match company names due to their different ways of being input, but we've got some tools to help with that. The question you have to ask yourself is: Do I want to send to everyone, or just one piece to one address?

While removing duplicates, we can save certain information from the deleted record to the surviving record, such as phone numbers. That's something you'll want to discuss with us.

On a more complex level, if there are existing transactional records which need to be saved, we can create a translation file for the ID numbers. That means the surviving record can be linked to the historical transactions of the deleted record. Therefore, you get to keep all your valuable information so you can make better decisions.

Special Situation

Rented Lists

When you rent several lists you WILL have duplications. A merge/purge is a MUST.

Also, since you probably want to track results about the performance of the different lists, we suggest you insert a different 'Mailing Code' for each list. We'll give you a count of the number of addresses mailed for each code.

When the reply comes in, you record the 'Mailing Code' as the 'Response Code' for each name/address you enter into your database.

Now you can do an analysis of the results of your marketing efforts and plan for the future.

Omitting Existing Customers

Another important benefit of the merge/purge is that, you can exclude your existing customers and persons requesting suppression from your prospects mailing.

In some cases it is even possible to include all the different mailing pieces into ONE bulk mailing and save on postage. A laser printer can insert different text according to the 'Mailing Code'.

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Questions? Please Contact Us.