Name file up-date

[dwarren]

Hello
Is there anyone that knows of a program that would work with ADP to update the name file data base? What we are looking for is to purge duplicate names and verify addresses. ADP has a couple of programs that they offer, one is called DataFresh and the other is Name consolidation tool. Has anyone used these and do they work? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you
Dwayne Warren

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DWARREN

[This message has been edited by dwarren (edited 10-16-2002).]

[jazdale]

Dwayne,

I'll leave it up to other dealers to tell you the success they have had with these programs.

Name consolidation (NCT) is a pretty simple tool for merging customer numbers into one and rolling all the historical detail into that number.

Data fresh will run your customer numbers against CASS (certified address) where we alter the address to match the official address from the post office - including 9 digit zip. Based on where you live, this can drop your bulk rate down about another 6 cents per piece, to about 18 cents a mailing.

It also runs your addresses against the NCOA (national change of address) records to update addresses to that person's latest known address. Definitely helps minimize the dead-letters. In most cases, you'll notice a 20-30% reduction in dead-letter mailings.

There's advantages to running datafresh first and NCT last.
Running datafresh first will be more expensive (charge per line item) but it speeds up the NCT process.

Dale

[fburrows]

Dwayne:

If you do any direct mail matching your addresses with the national database will make a big difference. We had a huge problem with this. My advisors would type MASS Ave for Massachusetts Avenue or spell it wrong or put some miscellaneous information in the address field and that meant that customer would never get a bulk mailing from us. In order to do get a bulk mail rate your addresses must be matched against a post office database to add the extra 4 digits on the end of the zip code. If there is no match the address is simply rejected. I am impressed that ADP offers this service.


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Frank Burrows
Automotive Business Solutions LLC
fburrows@absdata.com