By Barley Laing, the UK Managing Director at Melissa
The new government brings with it new ideas on driving efficiencies and positive change within the public sector. It is a necessity in light of the state of the public finances.
As it formulates its next steps in these areas the onus is on organisations in the public sector to take the lead in driving efficiency savings and change – the focus of Labour’s manifesto – which are interlinked.
One of the most important areas to focus on when looking at delivering efficiencies is the data they hold on citizens, in particular making sure they have accurate, verified address data, and the appropriate technology to make sure it’s delivered. This is a big issue when data degrades at around 25 per cent a year as people move home or pass away, for example.
The cost of poor address and other contact data
The cumulative cost of inaccurate data is between 15 per cent to 25 per cent of revenue for most organisations. This is because poor quality data wastes resources, undermines everyday operations and communications – particularly personalised communications, such as direct mail to citizens.
The public sector are stalwarts in sending direct mail on things such as recycling and rubbish collections, through to hospital appointments, bills and legal correspondence. Unfortunately, unverified, inaccurate address data can lead to costly mis-deliveries, delays and returns. If, for example, it’s correspondence related to a medical appointment which is then missed because of an inaccurate patient address, then there’s an additional cost in wasted staff time to the health service, and therefore the taxpayer; as well as the patient being put at risk with an additional delay. This is best avoided, particularly with public sector budgets under huge pressure.
It’s important to recognise that it’s not only about the monetary cost with inaccurate data, but reputation damage. If a resident does not receive their expected communication from a public sector organisation, or it’s delayed, it will not leave them with a good impression of the sender. This makes it essential for the address, and in fact all contact data, to be checked and verified, because citizens won’t be pleased to see public money being wasted in this way.
Furthermore, bad decision making is caused by inaccurate data on citizens, such as the delivery of a service, or the future creation of a new one – with negative implications for effective resource allocation and budgeting. Having clean, verified address data helps to deliver a single citizen view (SCV) – insight that can be used for better resource allocation, targeting and personalisation, and to make informed decisions.
Sustainability
The issue of carbon neutrality, and more widely sustainability, are very important in this sector, as in many others. Central government bodies are required to publish a ‘Public Sustainability report’ every year and also recognise ‘The Greening Government Commitments 2021 – 2025’ which commits those in the public sector to minimising waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. On top of this the government is also committed to net zero emissions by 2050, with a 50 per cent cut in emissions by the public sector by 2032. Ensuring accuracy with verified addresses will reduce carbon emissions from the production and distribution of incorrectly addressed mail that will be returned, and have a positive impact on the efforts of public bodies in operating sustainably.
Access an Address Autocomplete service
The best way to deliver accurate citizen data is to use an address autocomplete or lookup service. These services deliver accurate address data in real-time by providing a properly formatted, correct address at the onboarding stage, when the user starts to input theirs. Tools such as these are very important because around 20 per cent of addresses entered online contain errors; these include spelling mistakes, wrong house numbers, and incorrect postcodes, as well as incorrect email addresses and phone numbers, typically due to errors when typing contact information. Another benefit of the service is the number of keystrokes required when entering an address is cut by up to 81 per cent. This speeds up the onboarding process and improves the whole experience.
In fact, similar technology can be used to deliver first point of contact verification across email and phone, so these important contact datasets can also be verified in real-time.
It’s vital any address verification service sourced has access to Royal Mail’s PAF and supporting databases, such as Multi Residential and Not Yet Built. It can help to enrich data, such as fill in any gaps. The provider of such a service should also offer access to a geocoding tool that can deliver latitude and longitude coordinates for pinpoint (rooftop) accuracy to improve the delivery and user experience. This, additionally, enables organisations to map their constituents and understand dispersion.
Use a data quality platform
It has never been easier or more cost-effective to deliver address and wider data quality in real-time across existing customer databases. One that stands out is a scalable data cleaning software-as-a-service (SaaS) – such as our Unison platform – that can be easily accessed, and doesn’t require coding, integration, or training to use. This technology can cleanse and correct names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers for the UK, but also worldwide. It also matches records, ensuring no duplication, and data profiling is offered to help identify issues for further action. A single, intuitive interface offers the opportunity for data standardisation, validation, and enrichment, ensuring high-quality contact information across multiple databases. It can deliver this with held data in batch and as new data is being gathered. As well as SaaS, such service capabilities can alternatively be accessed via cloud-based API (application programming interface), Microsoft SQL Server or deployed on-premise.
Clean address / contact data helps prevent fraud
It is important to recognise that access to up to date verified address data – standardised, recognised and accurate addresses for citizens – is a big first step on the path to prevent fraud. You only have to go one step further and undertake address validation – matching a name to an address – to help put the lid on costly fraud, with the Cabinet Office estimating that fraud and error costs the public purse up to £51.8 billion every year. For best results in preventing fraud using an electronic identity verification (eIDV) platform to undertake ID verification is the way forward. An automated tool such as this can be accessed via delivery mechanisms, including an “out-of-the-box” user interface with no integration required; or cloud API; and scaled up or down according to the requirements of the users.
With these platforms being “always on” they are able, in real-time, to cross-check the names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers provided by applicants during remote onboarding. This delivers a good experience, while preventing fraud. Sourcing an eIDV tool with access to billions of consumer and business records from reputable sources around the world, such as government, utility and credit agencies is recommended for the best outcome.
Using such an automated platform is significantly quicker, more accurate and cost effective for undertaking ID verification and preventing fraud when compared with manual checks. There’s no additional staffing or training costs, and there’s far less risk of human error when using this technology.
By taking steps to obtain verified address data and wider contact data those in the public sector will improve the accuracy of their held address data on citizens. This will help to stop costly mis-deliveries, deliver insight that will help them personalise their communications, and make learnings that will drive efficiency savings, while also improving the user experience and driving positive change. It will also lessen their impact on the environment and help avoid costly fraud.
For more information about Melissa and their data quality and ID verification services please visit: www.melissa.com/uk, email: barley.laing@melissa.com or call: 020 7718 0070.
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