Data Processing
At Warnes we offer a full range of data manipulation services to make your data both accurate and presentable. Data integrity plays an important part in any mailing. People are more likely to respond if their details are correct. If they are not, it doesn’t give them any reason to have faith in the products or services you are trying to get across. Here is what we can do to help:
Data Assessment
First of all in the data process is the initial importing and integrity checks. We will analyse your data for inconsistencies and potential problems. We will then, if necessary contact you to alert you of potential problems and offer you a range of solutions. The data is assessed for key information and counts will then be verified against those expected. Key factors that are considered include – Is there a Postcode in a separate field in most of the UK records? Is there are Salutation field or a Title and Surname that can be used to create a Salutation for a personalised letter? Are addresses in different countries clearly identified with the Country being in a single fixed, field? Is the data in mixed case, or does it need case converting?
Deduplication
Postage is the most expensive part of any mailing and a data file that contains duplicate names and addresses can have unnecessary cost implications. Using phonetic matching, we can look at records within a file to see if the same person appears more than once or compare two different files to see if the person appears on both files and then remove the duplicate reducing both the production and postage costs and ensures that the addressee receives only one piece of mail. We are also able to dedupe multiple files in a hierarchy so as your most important lists retain the contacts that you wish.
PAF Verification
Again, postage money can be wasted unnecessarily due to poor or incomplete addresses. The PAF file (Postal Address File) is used to compare addresses to ensure that postcodes supplied are as accurate as possible and so ensure maximum postal discounts. Furthermore, other address information including first line, Town and County fields can be updated with the correct postal information.
MPS Suppression
We can compare the addresses supplied with the Mailing Preference Service register, so if someone has registered with the MPS not to receive direct mail then their names can be removed from the mailing file.
Bereavement / Gone away Suppression
By comparing the data against national Bereavement and Gone away registers, we are able to reduce the quantity of items mailed incorrectly.
Sortation for Mailsort (1400, 700 & 120), Presstream & Walksort
Royal Mail sorted services can offer you a huge discount on your postage, if you meet the criteria required. At Warnes, we are happy to offer you the best advice possible on ways to save money on postage. Should your mailing be suitable for mailsort, we will run your data through our sortation software which will do all the required sortation. For more information on Royal Mail’s sorted services visit our postage section.


