I recently saw some research into how many firms admit they have problems with their lists of customers and potential customers.

I was shocked.  Not because of the high numbers but because of the low numbers.

Just out of curiosity I have occasionally kept records of how many mailings I get either at home or at work arrive with my name written wrongly, or my company name written wrongly, or my address written wrongly.

The number is astonishingly high – around 40% of the mail I get makes at least one mistake.

And yet I know that some firms take the view that this doesn’t matter because the letter got to me.

I don’t think this is right – I think that we do notice when an address or name is written wrongly, and generally we are not impressed.  We also notice when we get duplicates.

Now I know that in saying all this I am opening up the chance for you to write back and say, “Hamilton House is not so good, you’ve been mailing xxx at my firm for years and he left 5 years ago.”

That’s not good – not good at all – and I would like to omit that totally.  But in my defence I would say the aim is not zero errors, but rather error levels that are below 5%.

The research by Experian suggested that 20% of firms know that their databases of customers are inaccurate, the same number admit they have lost customers because of inaccurate data, and over a quarter say they know they are sending out duplicate mailings to the same address.

That’s the problem – because it means that the rest don’t know they have a problem – and yet that problem is causing them harm.

If you are interested in how databases can work for you and make money you might like to take look at http://www.datapost.org.uk/

You can follow our discussions on Twitter @HHMailings and on www.blog.hamilton-house.com or call 01536 399 000

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.