Credit bureau Trans Union, Dallas, and Acxiom, Conway, AR, have debuted their new shared suppression database and address verification service TransAcxiom E.D.I.T.
For the past few months, the companies have been running a validation testing program with 13 firms through a database of several million names compiled by the participating companies to help identify poor risks or potentially fraudulent consumers.
“The validation testing of the complete database helped us to weed out and validate the good and bad customers,” said Robert Runke, senior vice president at Trans Union. “It indicates who they should have mailed to and who they shouldn't have mailed to. We saw an 8 percent match of the names that the tests said shouldn't have been mailed and the database of bad files.”
TransAcxiom E.D.I.T. passes mail files or order applications through three screening processes: the shared suppression database, Trans Union's demographic address verification file and Acxiom's Infobase verification system. The companies expect the system to hold more than 100 million names by the end of 1999.
“Before marketers mail anything, they can now wash a list of prospects through the shared suppression database and address verification services,” said Michael Medema, marketing manager for Trans Union's business diversification group. “The effort can pinpoint those prospects to avoid and eliminate the high costs of mailing to poorly qualified prospects.”
