The objective of suppression for PAS 2020 is to apply customer and prospect data suppression and maintain data quality
The greenDM.co.uk web site has been developed to be used in conjunction with the BSI PAS 2020:2009 standard. The environmental performance relating to the level needs to be used in conjunction with the PAS 2020:2009 document.
What is suppression and why use it?
Is the data I have accurate? Is it free from errors? ... or duplicates, out-of-date records or people who have died?
Sometimes this is what companies think.
Why bother with checking in the first place? After all, who is going to know? The people who will be contacted using this data set won’t know if they’re not there will they? So we can’t offend them. And if we send a communication to someone who isn’t there, the people who actually receive the communication may in fact like to receive it and respond anyway?
It isn’t quite that easy for three key reasons:
Statute: In the UK we are bound by statute in the form of The Data Protection Act 1998, which is based upon 8 key principles. In short, these principles require that we firstly have the permission of the person we are hosting data about to actually host their information; secondly that they are happy for us to communicate with them if appropriate; and thirdly we have their permission to sell on their information if appropriate. Finally, we must ensure that we host this data in a secure and responsible manner.
Brand Protection: Data hosts are also representing brands, or their clients brands. How would we feel if a recently deceased partner or sibling were sent a piece of marketing material that was received in their place? It doesn’t say much about the thought behind the company sending the communication in the first place...if they care this little how much will they care about the product they are trying to sell?
Cost: Why communicate with people who won’t or don’t want to receive information? What a waste; of both the materials used to communicate, but also the effort used in arranging the delivery of those materials. For example, when production costs of each piece of mail are calculated as part of a complete mailing campaign, then they can soon add up when added to the postage costs also incurred...all to send communications that are unwanted.
To assist with managing the three areas it is paramount that companies utilise suppression services.
Suppression is a process, which can help with all of the above; it is a process, which takes a data list and matches it to a hosted data set to see which records match that data list - or ‘suppression’ data list.
Suppression data lists can be compiled by a brand themselves (eg. those people who have asked a brand specifically not to contact them) or files are also available from organisations who have businesses which license appropriate lists of people who are known to be unlikely to want to receive marketing communications eg. those who have moved home.
Once you have these lists or know that they are available, then it is equally important to work with technology (or a partner with technology) that can manage the matching of one data record to another accurately. This part of the process can be complex and easy to mis-understand. So when considering options to assist in this arena, ensure that experience and support are supplied. Statistics that talk of ‘volume of matches’ made against a data file are not necessarily impressive...to suppress is ‘best practice’, but to suppress valid data, which could have been used, is just as much a waste as not managing suppression processes correctly in the first place.
To help with qualifying which lists and technology/partners with whom to work there are a number of businesses which support this broad and sophisticated area to the extent that the DMA (www.dma.org.uk) requires its members to use suppression files as part of the criteria for membership (DM Code of Practice 3rd Edition). And whilst not all data users are members of The DMA, bearing in mind the 3 key points discussed above, the use of Suppression is a ‘best practice’ process not to be ignored.
Here is a guide to some of the Suppression List suppliers and the lists that they have on the market in the UK:
DMA
- Mail Preference Service (MPS)
- Telephone Preference Service
- Corporate Telephone Preference Service
- Baby Mailing Preference Service
The Millennium Group
Royal Mail
- National Change of Address Register (NCOA)
- Universal Suppression File
The REaD Group
- Xpression
- The Bereavement Register (TBR)
- Goneaway Suppression File
Experian
Acxiom
Equifax
Visit the Data Lateral website
Level 1
Customer and prospect data for a campaign shall be maintained in accordance with documented procedures. This shall include, as a minimum:
a) matching and updating mailing files against a postcode address file;
b) suppressing customer and prospect data against the Mail Preference Service (MPS), including MPS deceased, in instances where the data is not from a consent-based file;
c) suppressing customer and prospect data against a file of customer and prospect opt out requests; and
d) checking customer and prospect data used in a campaign against the files referred to in a), b) and c) 30 days or less before a DM communication that uses the data is delivered to the recipient.
Hygiene and validating records shall be carried out no less than once a year in accordance with a documented procedure.
Level 2
In addition to the first paragraph of Level 1, including items a) to d), customer and prospect data used in a campaign shall be checked against one commercially available deceased and gone away suppression file 30 days or less before a DM communication that uses the data is delivered to the recipient.
Hygiene and validating records shall be carried out no less than twice a year in accordance with a documented procedure.
Level 3
Level 3 shall be the entry level for high volume business-to-consumer and business-to-business direct marketers. (Review PAS 2020:2009 standard for criteria)
In addition to the first paragraph of Level 1, including items a) to d), customer and prospect data used in a campaign shall be checked against more than one commercially available deceased and gone away suppression file 30 days or less before a DM communication that uses the data is delivered to the recipient.
A client customer database shall be maintained. The data quality of the database shall be audited at least every three months to check that the database has been updated and contains accurate data. The results of these audits shall be documented.