The Cost of Bad Data: How Data Quality Impacts Every Communication Channel

Every customer communication starts with data.

Before a letter is printed, an email is sent, or a text message is delivered, an organization is making a fundamental assumption: the contact information behind that communication is accurate.

When it isn't, even the best-designed communication strategy can break down.

A perfectly composed letter can't reach someone at the wrong address. An important email can't generate a response if the mailbox doesn't exist. And an omnichannel strategy can't effectively move between communication channels if the underlying contact data can't be trusted.

That's why data quality isn't simply a database issue.

It's the foundation of communication.

Bad Data Has a Real Cost

The impact of poor data extends far beyond a few returned letters or bounced emails.

Gartner estimates that poor data quality costs organizations at least $12.9 million per year on average.

Those costs can appear throughout an organization in different ways: wasted production and postage, unnecessary email volume, manual research and rework, inaccurate reporting, missed opportunities, and communications that simply never reach their intended recipient.

For organizations sending thousands—or millions—of consumer communications, even a relatively small percentage of inaccurate records can create significant downstream consequences.

And those consequences don't stop at one communication channel.

In Print, Bad Data Becomes Physical Waste

The cost of inaccurate postal data is particularly easy to see.

Every mail piece has a cost before it ever reaches the consumer. There is paper, printing, envelopes, inserting, processing, and postage.

If the address is incomplete, outdated, or incorrect, that investment may have already been made before the problem is discovered.

The United States Postal Service continues to track Undeliverable-as-Addressed (UAA) mail and publishes detailed statistics on its volume and processing costs.

That's why postal address hygiene remains an important part of an effective mail program. <LINK THIS TO: https://www.compumailinc.com/blog/address-hygiene-improves-mail-delivery>

Services such as CASS™, NCOA®, AEC, ACS, and Electronic Return Mail (ERM) can help organizations validate, correct, update, and learn from their address data before and after communications enter the mailstream.

But physical addresses are only one part of the consumer record.

In Email, Bad Data Can Affect More Than One Message

With email, the immediate cost of an invalid address may seem smaller. There is no paper, envelope, or postage attached to a bounced message.

But the downstream impact can be much larger than a single failed email.

Repeatedly sending to invalid, dormant, disposable, or otherwise problematic email addresses can increase bounce rates and contribute to signals that negatively affect sender reputation and deliverability.

That means poor data associated with one group of recipients can potentially influence an organization's ability to reach others.

EmailVerifyIQ helps organizations evaluate email addresses before deployment, identifying invalid and potentially problematic addresses so organizations can make better decisions about where they send. <LINK this to: https://www.compumailinc.com/blog/meet-emailverifyiq-email-address-hygiene-deliverability>

Just as postal address hygiene can help prevent a mail piece from being produced for an address known to be undeliverable, email hygiene can help prevent unnecessary sends before they occur.

Different channel.

Same underlying principle.

Better data creates a better opportunity for delivery.

The Bigger Problem: Data Doesn't Live in One Channel

This is where data quality becomes more than a print or email issue.

Consider a consumer record containing a name, mailing address, email address, and mobile number.

Those aren't four unrelated pieces of information. Together, they represent the organization's ability to communicate with that individual.

If an email address becomes invalid, the mailing address may still be valid.

If someone moves, their email address may still provide an effective way to reach them.

And if one communication channel fails, another may provide the next opportunity to connect.

But that only works when organizations understand the quality of the data available across those channels.

Instead of asking:

“Do we have an address?”

A better question is:

“What reliable ways do we have to reach this person?”

That distinction becomes increasingly important as organizations move toward multichannel and omnichannel communication strategies.

Better Data Makes Smarter Communication Possible

Using multiple channels doesn't necessarily mean sending every communication through every channel.

A more intelligent strategy can use data and business rules to determine what happens next.

For example, an organization might begin with email for an eligible communication. If the email cannot be delivered, the communication can move to print. In another workflow, print may be the required primary channel while email or SMS provides additional reinforcement.

This type of waterfall communication strategy allows channels to work together rather than operate as isolated systems.

But a waterfall is only useful when the next step provides a legitimate opportunity to reach the consumer.

Moving from a bad email address to an outdated mailing address doesn't solve the problem.

It simply moves the failure from one channel to another.

That's why address hygiene and email hygiene become even more valuable in an omnichannel environment.

The objective isn't simply to clean individual lists. It's to improve the quality of the communication pathways available for each consumer.

Every Channel Can Make the Data Better

There's another important advantage to looking at data quality across channels: communication can create new information.

A returned mail piece tells you something.

A hard email bounce tells you something.

An NCOA match tells you something.

A successful delivery tells you something.

Rather than allowing those signals to remain trapped inside separate print, email, or operational workflows, organizations can use them to continually improve the quality of their consumer data.

That creates a cycle:

Better data → better routing → better delivery → better feedback → better data.

Over time, communication becomes more than the output of a database.

It becomes another way to improve it.

From Address Hygiene to Communication Hygiene

Organizations have practiced postal address hygiene for decades because the economics are straightforward: don't spend money producing and mailing something when you already know the address is bad.

The same philosophy now needs to extend across the communication ecosystem.

Validate physical addresses.

Evaluate email addresses.

Learn from delivery failures.

Update consumer records.

And use the strongest available data to determine the next appropriate communication channel.

The goal isn't simply cleaner postal data or cleaner email data.

It's a cleaner, more reliable connection between your organization and the people you're trying to reach.

Build Your Communication Strategy on Better Data

CompuMail helps organizations improve communication data across both physical and digital channels.

Our Address Enhancement Services use tools including CASS™, NCOA®, AEC, ACS, and Electronic Return Mail to help improve postal address quality, reduce undeliverable mail, and capture valuable information from the mailstream.

EmailVerifyIQ extends that same data-quality philosophy to email by identifying invalid and potentially problematic email addresses before deployment.

Combined with multichannel communication workflows that can coordinate print, email, and SMS, better data gives organizations more than cleaner lists.

It gives every communication a better opportunity to reach the right person through the right channel.

Because when communication starts with better data, every channel works better.

Better Data Starts With a Better Strategy

Want to see how better data quality can strengthen your communications across print and email? Request a demo to learn how CompuMail's address hygiene and communication solutions can help you improve data quality, reduce waste, and create more reliable paths to your customers.