DS0409_REPORT_p12_CS Trillium:Layout 1 1/4/09 16:00 Page 12
CASE STUDY
THE DATA BEHIND THE BRAND
Nectar's success, the trust of its collectors and partners, demands excellent data quality
Identity cards, loyalty cards, customer relationship data quality is now business as usual for us.”
management – the success of such initiatives is highly Given the varied quality of source data, Nectar is proud
dependent upon the quality of the data behind them. At of the accuracy of the contact information it holds. In its
Nectar, good data quality practices have been active collector database some 96 per cent of its address
fundamental to the creation of a reliable single customer records are considered to be 100 per cent accurate.
view and ultimately to the success of the brand.
“
Collector
Through numerous high street and online partners,
information
Sophisticated projects
approximately 50 percent of UK households participate
is our most
Data quality for Nectar may now be a standard process
in the Nectar programme. Since its launch in 2002, as regards Nectar registrations and maintaining ongoing
Nectar has given back over £1billion worth of rewards
valuable asset
data accuracy. But there are also ‘non-standard’ projects
to collectors. Nineteen Nectar cards are swiped every
and the
where good data quality is essential too.
second of the day. For example Nectar uses the Trillium Software
quality of that System to help partners match their own customer
Nectar data databases with the Nectar collector database
To join Nectar, shoppers complete paper-based forms
information
“For certain campaigns, our partners might want to
available in stores or register online. The Nectar membership
is everything
know which individuals are on both their own customer
database today holds details of millions of opted-in database and on the Nectar database, or which
households. Nectar uses this information to present
to us; it’s
customers are common to both,” said Cantrill. “The
targeted, relevant offers to collectors - on behalf of the
fundamental to
Trillium Software System makes this exercise easy,
companies that participate in the Nectar programme. including the process of pre-processing the partner’s
“Nectar is trusted by millions of people,” explained our brand…” data where necessary, to bring it up to a sufficient
Louise Cantrill, campaign services manager at Nectar. standard for accurate matching.”
“Collector information is our most valuable asset and
Louise Cantrill,
the quality of that information is everything to us; it’s
campaign
fundamental to our brand, our partners and our
compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.”
services
Early on, Nectar expected its data capture agency to
manager at
ensure name and address data in Nectar application
forms or letters was accurately coded. Data quality Nectar
was considered a technical issue, entrusted to internal
IT specialists.
High business value
By 2004, Nectar was clearly a hit. Millions of households
were collecting points. Retail and service partners were
making as many as 50 extracts a month from their
Nectar databases to gain intelligence to guide campaigns. As another example, in 2007, in a multi-million pound
“With the ever increasing importance of our collector re-brand, Nectar mailed over 10 million collectors with
database to partners, we needed closer control over new Nectar cards replacing ones up to five years old. It
data quality,” said Cantrill. “We made business was one of the largest ‘recard’ mailings in Europe.
management responsible for it and pursued a more For each individual, a personalised card and later a
systematic approach to spotting issues in records, pack was produced. These had then to be matched
adding missing information and identifying duplicates.” together and mailed. In the intervening weeks however,
Ultimately, to fulfil its objective of business ownership there were 300,000 suppressions on the grounds of data
of data quality, Nectar needed to provide business users latency. Using the Trillium Software System, Nectar
with a data quality toolset they could use for themselves. identified these suppressions saving around £150k in
production and mailing costs and ensuring the right
Automated data quality cards got to the right people, protecting the integrity of
Nectar invested in the Trillium Software System, from the Nectar brand!
Harte-Hanks Trillium Software. Supported by the
vendor’s professional services team, Nectar defined, Final word
tested and implemented an extensive and rigorous set The benefits of excellent data quality processes are
of business rules to allow it to better understand the integral to the success of Nectar. Certainly considerable
nature of its data, expose and correct issues within it. savings are made through maintaining low rates of
“Today our quality processes are very advanced, both returned mail. But much more significantly, Nectar
at a real-time data entry level and on an ongoing batch- would be seriously undermined if collector data lacked
maintenance basis,” said Cantrill. “We are confident in integrity since this would lead to a loss of faith with
our data integrity; with the Trillium Software System, collectors and partners.
12 DATA STRATEGY | REPORT | APRIL 2009
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