Posts tagged ‘Contact Validation’
Direct Mail Marketing Isn’t Going Anywhere Yet
While many industry experts are calling 2010 the year that will “kill marketing as we know it”, some feel that we shouldn’t be so quick to write off some of the good ole’ tried and true methods. I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal that further convinced me. The article, “Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing” talks about several companies who made a shift away from their direct mail campaigns and found their business suffered direct losses from eliminating this type of communication with their customers and targets.
Direct mail marketing can still prove to be a very effective way to reach customers and prospects. Especially for small businesses with a unique offering who are looking to stand out and continue a dialog with their audience. I think the main issue with Direct Mail though is that it needs to be done smartly, with consideration that people are constantly being bombarded with messages, offers and promotions through other mediums. Direct mail should not equal waste. It should not be a waste of time for the recipient, environmental resources or budget dollars.
Businesses who plan to use Direct Mail as a part of their marketing efforts in 2010 might consider committing to make their campaigns more effective and less wasteful by putting in place “greener mail” initiatives. Each year, the US postal service attempts to deliver billions of pieces of mail that will never reach their intended recipient due to being undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA). Using tools that verify and standardize addresses is a quick and cost effective way to reduce the impact of direct mailings.
Check out our best practices tip sheet “Greener Mail: 6 Tips Simple Tips for More Eco- and Budget Friendly Mailings” for more information.
Posted by: Gretchen N.
January 13, 2010 at 8:37 am serviceobjects2001 Leave a comment
Phone Validation Made Simple
Businesses know Phone Validation makes business sense, but how do you use it to your best advantage?
There are several things to consider when trying to validate a telephone number, and in this blog we have broken down the process for you step-by-step. There are many ways to validate a telephone number, and many variables within the number to validate:
- Is the telephone number valid?
- Is the telephone number a landline, wireless, or VoIP?
- Is the telephone number disconnected or not valid (e.g. area code 999 does not exist)?
Service Objects offers the following telephone validation options:
- A multi-database Web service designed to provide the most accurate lookup of landline telephone numbers available
- Updated daily
- 72% match rate for consumers, 63% match rate for businesses
- Coverage for the US and Canada
- Point-of-entry validation
- Instantly recognizes if a telephone number is valid and acceptable by verifying the first seven digits of the number
- Returns line type (landline, wireless, or VoIP)
- Telephone data compiled from over 2,600 US and Canadian telephone service providers
- Returns telephone service provider information (carrier, city, state, latitude, longitude)
- Reverse-lookup of residential, business, and government telephone numbers
- Comprised of daily feeds from over 2,600 telephone companies across the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico
- Over 190 million telephone listings
- Dynamic access to a variety of public, private, and proprietary telephone data
- Determines contact name and address
- Determines telephone type (business or residential)
- Determines line type (landline, wireless, or VoIP)
- Combines 3 of our powerful DOTS telephone validation services (DOTS GeoPhone, DOTS GeoPhone Wireless, and DOTS Phone Append)
- Compares a 10-digit telephone number to our database powerhouse of over 300 million records
- Determines contact name and address
- Determines telephone type (business, residential, Government)
- Determines line type (landline, wireless, VoIP, or toll free)
- Returns telephone service provider information (carrier, city, state, latitude, longitude)
I hope that I have helped in answering your telephone validation questions.
Thanks,
Ryan M.
Excited About DOTS Web Services!
As the spokesperson for our Marketing Department, I can say in all honesty that Marketing gets really excited when a new product is launched. Our wheels start to turn thinking about all of the new sponsorships and opportunities we will have to advertise our newest DOTS Web Service, while increasing brand awareness at the same time. Right now, DOTS GeoPhone Plus has us excited because it is a revolutionary real-time service, filling a great void in the market place. On that note, I am happy to announce the release of DOTS GeoPhone Plus!
So what makes DOTS GeoPhone Plus so exciting? Personally, I find our newest service to be both exciting and impressive because it combines 3 of our key products (DOTS GeoPhone, DOTS GeoPhone Wireless, and DOTS Phone Exchange) and combines them all into one comprehensive solution. I can not tell you how often we hear requests for a product of this kind, so it makes us smile to see it come to fruition and fill the market demand for this type of service.
I encourage you to check out DOTS GeoPhone Plus on our Web site, and try a few lookups of your own by visiting our Lookups page. Hopefully you will find our new product as interesting as I do 
Thanks for reading this week,
Dara F.
P.S. DOTS GeoPhone Plus will also be the topic of our newsletter this month so don’t foget to sign up to receive our newsletter or visit our Newsletter Archive.
The Heart and Soul of Service Objects
To our wonderful clients and thousands of users who click on our Web site each day, Service Objects is a B2B company that provides real-time validation and fraud prevention solutions. But behind it all we have a great team of awesome individuals that not only love to help our clients, but love to help our community as well.
When Alen is not working around the clock to ensure absolute up-time for our clients, when Ryan is not explaining to Project Managers how DOTS Lead Validation can protect their affiliate lead gen projects, and when Jonas is not inventing new logic algorithms to combat the ever-evolving forms of online fraud, you will find Service Objects helping those in need.
At Service Objects social responsibility starts at the top with our executive team. On any given day you may find them serving our community by fixing bicycles on Earth Day, caring for pets during the recent evacuation of the Jesusita fires, or mentoring some of the young adults in Santa Barbara.
Giving back is part of our company culture and is the heart and soul of Service Objects. We are a lifetime supporter of the Humane Society, offer pro-bono licenses for public education, help Angel Flight West transport terminally-ill patients to receive medical care, and donate to local organizations in the Santa Barbara area.
At Service Objects we’re not all about business. We are in the business of helping companies reduce online fraud and validating contact information, but we are also in the business of helping people and giving back.
Thank you,
Marissa B.
The Business of Batches
We often hear the question, “What is the difference between your Batch services and your Real-Time XML Web Services? Hopefully these key points will help shed some light on the matter.
Can I order a Batch for any of your services? With the exception of only a few services, the majority of DOTS Services are offered in both Real-Time XML and as Batch processes.
Is the data different? The data returned is exactly the same, only the manner in which it is received is different:
1) Real-Time Services return the data via the Web in an XML string using standard Internet protocols.
2) Batches are manually processed most commonly in CSV (comma separated values) or Excel formats. The data output is the same as the Real-Time Services, it’s just appended within the file.
What is your pricing for Batch services? Batch pricing is identical to its Real-Time counterpart – simply use the same pricing tiers that are on the Web site. The only difference in pricing can be found in the setup fees. Each Batch we process has a $125 batch handling fee per file, while Real-Time Services have a one-time set-up fee of $95.
How do I send in my Batch to be processed? Just send your Batch file to your friendly Service Objects representative or use the online Batch upload tool on our Web site which can be found here.
DOTS Batch Services are a convenient, fast, and easy solution. Contact us today to see how we can help scrub your database clean of bogus information.
Thank you for reading this week and I hope that I have answered all of your questions!
Will E.
When the Going Gets Tough the Tough use DOTS Web Services
With the economy amidst a downfall you need to exercise your budget, right? Service Objects can help you lean down expenses and keep moving forward with DOTS Lead Validation.
Efficiency is key in this day and age, and what directly attributes to efficiency? Streamlining and Automation!
Can you tell just by looking at your leads which ones are HOT and which ones are BAD?
Add up all the money you are spending on the cost of incoming leads, marketing campaigns, and sales team follow-ups. It quickly adds up, especially if your HOT leads are becoming weak during your qualification process. What a waste of time, energy, opportunity, and most of all money!
What if you had instant visibility into your leads? Imagine immediately calling to follow-up with a lead while their interest is still fresh. There would be no doubt that you would easily increase sales and efficiency. 
DOTS Lead Validation will do all the work for you within milliseconds! You will instantly know if the lead is a business or consumer, if their telephone number, mailing address, email, and IP number are valid, and if that lead is worth your time and money.
As proof that DOTS Lead Validation works, check out our Web site, we are HIRING not firing, because we are doing well despite the recession. Why? Because DOTS Lead Validation works for us too 
So, keep your business focused on strong leads during tough times. Get strong and get going with DOTS Lead Validation!
Thanks for reading this week,
Ericka J.
March 27, 2009 at 4:10 pm serviceobjects2001 Leave a comment
Three most common questions…
Since the launch of our Service Objects’ new Web site, there are three questions that most customers and prospects still have on the tip of their tongues regardless of their interest:
1) How much does it cost?
2) What is a transaction?
3) What is my login?
1) How much does it cost?
a) The price of each DOTS Web Service varies in regards to the number of transactions and the actual pricing tier that it falls under.
b) Our pricing is based on volume discount on a Month-to-Month or Annual basis. This choice is entirely up to (you) the client; however we always try to work within your budget. We can also create a custom contract that will allow both parties to be satisfied.
c) Please have a look at our Product Directory, which also includes a helpful pricing link for each DOTS Web Service.
2) What is a transaction?
a) Service Objects defines a “transaction” as every time you call one of our DOTS Web Services, or ping one of our databases. Even on the odd chance that the call to our services is not successful, you are still accessing our database and it will still be considered a transaction.
3) What is my login? (three part question)
a) Website login
i) Create an account
ii) If you are a current customer and have not created a Web site login you will need to do so.
iii) This login is for your use only, each person within your organization can have their own secure login information.
iv) Please go to our Registration Page to create your login.
b) Client login to check usage
You will need two items of information to check your usage:
i) The original email used to create your account
ii) Your license key
c) To check your usage please use the following links:
i) Trial Key Usage
ii) Production Key Usage
Thank you for reading and I hope that I was able to answer your questions.
Ryan M.
March 10, 2009 at 10:10 pm serviceobjects2001 Leave a comment
Sales Tax and Address Validation: The Easy E-Commerce Solution
The economy is forcing many stores to close their doors, and as a result, we are seeing more and more businesses move to the internet. What was once a cash and carry nation, has evolved into a PayPal™ and UPS™ standard way of life.
With e-commerce redefining the business world, the little fish finally get to swim in the same pond as the big fish. Anyone with a budget and a vision can launch an online store front, and that’s where we can help.
Service Objects offers fast and easy solutions to help merchants successfully run their online businesses. Our DOTS FastTaxSM Web Service calculates sales tax and use tax, based on street address, zip code, or simple city/state/county information. It can easily integrate into your shopping cart, so the correct tax rate will auto-populate during checkout. We host the tax data and update it monthly, so you don’t have to waste time looking up tax rates or pay a third party to audit your books.
Along with calculating correct sales tax, another critical component to running an online business is verifying customer mailing addresses. DOTS Address ValidationSM is our most popular service – it corrects and standardizes U.S. addresses, as well as determines whether an address is deliverable or not. By using DOTS Address Validation to correct shipping and billing addresses at the point-of-entry, you can prevent the hefty cost of returned packages. We are one of only a few companies that the USPS® trusts with their data, and with monthly data updates, you get only the most accurate mailing information every time.
Combining the power of DOTS Address Validation and DOTS FastTax offers online merchants a simple and effective e-commerce solution. For less than the price of a latte each day, you can calculate tax rates and correct addresses for all of your online customers.
Service Objects offers a diverse range of products to help your online business run smoother, faster, and more efficiently. Give Service Objects a call today, to find out how we can build an affordable solution for you. You can also find out more about our solutions by visiting our Web site.
Thanks for reading,
Marissa B.
February 26, 2009 at 6:58 pm serviceobjects2001 Leave a comment
What’s New at Service Objects?
The development team here at Service Objects is always hard at work supporting, enhancing, and building new Web services. For this blog, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk to you about two new and enhanced Web services, that we will be releasing in the near future!
DOTS GeoPhone Plus is a new composite service that builds on upon a few of our current Web services, DOTS Phone Exchange, DOTS GeoPhone, and DOTS GeoPhone Wireless. DOTS GeoPhone Plus rolls all of these services into a one-stop shop for telephone number information and validation.
In the past, clients may have purchased up to all three of the previous telephone Web services in order to efficiently access the full range of telephone number information and contact data. Now, clients can access all of same the data with just one transaction of DOTS GeoPhone Plus.
Another new service we are rolling out is DOTS Demographics Plus. In addition to the normal zip code level information returned by the older service, DOTS Demographics, new low level information is also returned. Instead of a zip code, an address is now used as the Web service input. The returned output fields provide resolution down to the block level (about 50 people). Data available at this level includes age, income, and race distributions.
These new services will be available soon and we have many new interesting Web services in the works as well.
Stay tuned!
Jonas S.
February 23, 2009 at 4:40 pm serviceobjects2001 Leave a comment
