Reduce mailing costs, increase response rates, and improve data quality.  The Blackbaud® eTapestry® AddressFinder™ NCOA® update service can do just that.  The eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA service updates “good” addresses and identifies “bad” addresses so you can keep your eTapestry database clean and healthy.  This post will explain how it works and the steps you should complete during each AddressFinder NCOA run.

How to schedule the eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update service

The eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update service is straightforward to setup.  The service reviews the accounts in your eTapestry database (based on the query you select), updates addresses it can update, and flags addresses that it can’t update.

Blackbaud eTapestry does offer some warnings in its help documentation that should be noted before starting the process.

Follow these steps to schedule an eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA run:

• Select the Management dropdown
• Select AddressFinder (NCOA)
• Select Base as the Category
• Select All Constituents as the Query (you may select a different query if you want)
• Select which personas you want to update
• Select how you want to handle reformatted addresses
• Enter a date to run the service
• Add an email address to receive a notification when the service is complete

It is recommended that you run the service every 90 days.

The rest of this post outlines very important steps to take after the eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update is complete.

How to update the Mailing Status UDF for “good” and “bad” addresses

The process of updating your eTapestry database isn’t complete after running the AddressFinder NCOA service.  The steps outlined below are easy to forget, but significantly improve the quality of your eTapestry database.  

When the eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA service is complete, you must complete two manual processes to mark “bad address” for those accounts the NCOA update found as “Invalid Address” and “Move Identified, Address Cannot be Updated” and clear “bad address” for those accounts the NCOA update found as “Address Standardized” and “Address Updated.”

In both processes, you will update the “Mailing Status” field in your eTapestry database.  The “Mailing Status” field is a standard user defined field in some databases located in the “Base” category and it is a custom user defined field in other databases.  The “Mailing Status” field varies from database to database, but it commonly contains field values like do not mail, do not solicit, inactive, not head of household, and bad address.

After the AddressFinder NCOA process is complete, you need to update the “Bad Address” field value by either marking an account as “bad address” if found to be “bad” by the NCOA update or clearing an account flagged as a “bad address” if found to be “good” by the NCOA update.

Since the “Mailing Status” field isn’t a standard field and every eTapestry database is a little different, you must manually update the “Mailing Status” field with mass updates after running the AddressFinder NCOA update.

Mark “Bad Address” mailing status for “Invalid” and “Not Updated” addresses

The eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update found addresses that were “Invalid” and “Not Updated.”  It flagged those addresses with a persona user defined field (UDF) and bucketed them in two queries called “Invalid Address” and “Move Identified, Address Cannot be Updated.”  Both queries are located in the AddressFinder (NCOA) Codes query category.  The eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update flags the accounts and buckets them in the queries automatically.

Accounts that are flagged as “Invalid Address” and “Move Identified, Address Cannot be Updated” are addresses where you may not want to send mail.  If that is the case, then it is important to update them by flagging the “Mailing Status” field as “Bad Address.”

An eTapestry mass update takes a query of records (i.e. account or journal entry) and completes a single action on those records.  A mass update can add new field values to a set of records or remove a field value from a set of records.  For “Invalid” and “Not Updated” addresses, mass update all accounts to “Mailing Status – Bad Address.”

Follow these steps to update the accounts:

• Select the Management dropdown
• Select Mass Update
• Select Update Existing Accounts
• Select AddressFinder NCOA Codes as the Category
• Select Invalid Address as the Query
• Select Assign
• Select the Mailing Status field and select Bad Address
• Select Next
• Verify the preview screen based on your expectations
• Select Next and the mass update process will run

Run this process a second time for the “Move Identified, Address Cannot be Updated” query.

Clear “Bad Address” mailing status from “Standardized” and “Updated” addresses

The eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update also found “good” addresses and “Standardized” and “Updated” those addresses.  Two more queries were created for these “good” addresses.  The queries are called “Address Standardized” and “Move Identified, Address Updated.”

It is possible that the eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA service found and updated “good” addresses that are flagged with a “Bad Address” mailing status field, but now the update has proven that they are “good” addresses.  As a result, it is important to update those accounts by removing the “Bad Address” field value from the “Mailing Status” field so you can send mail to these accounts again.

An eTapestry mass update process can update these accounts by removing the “Bad Address” field value in batch.

Follow these steps to update the accounts:

• Select the Management dropdown
• Select Mass Update
• Select Update Existing Accounts
• Select AddressFinder NCOA Codes as the Category
• Select Address Standardized as the Query
• Select Remove
• Select the Mailing Status field and select Bad Address
• Select Next
• Verify the preview screen based on your expectations
• Select Next and the mass update process will run

Run this process a second time for the “Move Identified, Address Updated” query.

How to create a clean mailing list query for “good” addresses

Creating a clean mailing list query will depend on how your eTapestry database is setup.  The format of the query will depend on the “Mailing Status” field and the complexity of your mailing list segmentation.  There are two common paths to build a clean mailing list query.

1. Create a query for all accounts with a negative value in the “Mailing Status” field.  Then subtract this “Do Not Mail” query (i.e. all the accounts that don’t want or shouldn’t receive mail) from your query that finds all accounts where you intend to send mail (i.e. the segmented set of accounts you are targeting).  This will be a compound query.
2. Create a query for all the accounts where you intend to send mail (i.e. the segmented set of accounts you are targeting) and add the “Mailing Status” field to your query criteria.  Select the “field has no value” option from the criteria settings for the “Mailing Status” field.  This will find all accounts that don’t have a mailing status selected (i.e. all accounts without a negative “Mailing Status” field value).  Select “All of my criteria” for your query.  This process will only work if your “Mailing Status” field contains negative “Mailing Status” field values.

Managing eTapestry Data Quality

The eTapestry AddressFinder NCOA update service is a data quality management tool.  The tool is automated to a point, but you must take additional manual steps to fully update your data.  Add mass updates to your to-do list after running an AddressFinder NCOA update and develop clean mailing lists that exclude accounts with negative “Mailing Status” field values.