Frequently Asked Questions

Basic Questions

Security Questions

Detailed Questions

Matching Level Questions

Answers

What are your payment terms?

Our standard trade account terms are 14 days.

What are my prices?

Your prices can be seen from within the Account Mgmt section of the site. Further information about each service, how it is charged, and what you get back can be found by clicking on the details... link adjacent to all the prices.

What will it cost?

You will be provided with a full breakdown of the costs at the end of the process before paying.

Do you guarantee the data is 100% accurate?

We carry out constant quality control checks on the data we supply, but as the data changes daily and there are several ways in which a match can be achieved we cannot guarantee this. Certain coincidences do happen: John Smith dies and the house gets bought by another John Smith; Andrew Jones calls his eldest son Andrew, who later becomes gone away when he leaves the nest - causing Andrew Senior to be marked as gone away.

When can I send a file for processing?

The website is open and available 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

When will I receive my cleansed data?

Your data will be sent to you after you have agreed the services you want to purchase. This is normally immediately after agreement to pay. Additionally, you can download the data from the website using the links within the View Purchased Job History section of the Account Mgmt link.

What if the service I want is not covered by your website?

We are a fully licensed bureau with several data sources and can help you to develop a bespoke set of rules built around your data very quickly.

If I need technical help or have a question on your services who and when do I call?

Feel free to call 0151 355 4555 or press the "call me" button on the site during office hours we would be happy to help.

I don't know the data format of my data file. Can you help?

Don't worry. Simply upload the file and the wizard will usually predict the format of your data. Your job is to confirm that it has correctly identified it.

How secure is my data?

Data8Online is available through a secure web connection on SSL with 128 encryption. This is the highest available level of encryption available on mainstream web browsers today. Once your data is with us it is held securely and privately within our servers. Please read our privacy policy

What will you do with my email address?

We will only use your e-mail for marketing and contact through Data8Online. Please read our privacy policy

How are you able to process this data for free?

We process the data on your behalf and only provide statistical information in the Data Quality Audit. You only pay when you download data.

When do you refresh your data?

The different data files get updated at different times. The most frequent file receives up to 60,000 changes each day, while others are refreshed monthly.

Does the system slow down to update the reference data?

You will not experience a slowing in service for this, you may however experience a slow down as more users are logged on and processing data.

Do you provide TPS screening only?

Yes we can provide this service separately, please contact us to set this up.

I only want to Goneaway suppress (or any other service). Can I just do the processes I need?

Yes, we can provide this service separately, please contact us to set this up.

I only want to use these specific gone away files. Can this be done?

Yes, we can provide this service separately, please contact us to set this up.

Why don't the numbers on the report always add up to number of records I can count when I download the results?

They usually do add up but there are some special situations where small differences may be found: (i) if our reference files are changed in between you performing the data quality audit and downloading the results, then you may get a slightly different amount of answers; or (ii) if you are choosing to suppress (rather than flag), and you choose several of the services that are affected by suppression (for example MPS and Goneaway), then you may find that any individual record will be suppressed by both services. In this scenario we will not charge you for the more expensive item.

What are forename, initial and surname level matching?

You can choose exactly what we will count as a match between your data and our reference files when buying services such as goneaway and deceased flagging:

• With surname level matching, we will allow a match to be made between Mr John Smith in your data and Mr Richard Smith in our reference files.
• With initial level matching, we ensure that there is no disagreement between the forenames on your data and in our reference files before allowing a match, but do not require a full forename match, e.g. Mr J Smith in your data will match Mr John Smith in our reference files, but we do not allow Mr John Smith to match Mr James Smith even though their initials match.
• With forename level matching, we only allow full forename matches, i.e. Mr John Smith will match only Mr John Smith.

What match level should I choose?

The two main things that determine the choice of match level are:

How accurate do you need to be with your matches? If you are mailing an unqualified prospect database, it is often more cost efficient to use surname level matching to remove the largest possible number of prospects before sending out an expensive mailing, but if you are contacting valuable existing customers it is normally better to use more accurate initial or forename level matching.
• How much name information do you have? If you only have surnames or initials in your records, there is no point selecting forename level matching as you will never find any matches. Likewise, some of our reference files do not contain full forenames to match against, so your match rate will be less with forename level matching even if all your records have full forenames.

We normally recommend initial level matching as a compromise between these two extremes, but please contact us if you are in any doubt.

Do you use any fuzzy matching techniques?

Yes, we use a variety of techniques to get the best quality matches between often badly formatted name and address data, including several fuzzy matching algorithms.