Experian Data Validation for Sales/Service Cloud: Address, email & phone

Using Experian -Lalith Abeysena

For us to be successful, we needed to validate all incoming data across our platforms. Experian provided the complete solution that was straight forward to implement and continues to meet our needs to this day.

Experian Address Validation

The data validation solution works really well within our Salesforce CRM. It’s just one app that was easy to install and a one-click process to validate the details within a form. Having used this for a few years, it’s been a great addition to our growing database and has ensured that the data entering the system is valid and accurate.

working - not bad, not great

It works to certain extent. It has a couple of flaws that stops it from being great. It's not great when we wish for something that can be set-and-forget. Passive mode conflicts with NPSP roll up summary batch job. EDQ address database is not always correct. it occasionally drop off a valid unit number from address line...

Does this company still exist ?

I have tried many time to contact someone at Experian in France. Voicemail all the times. I sent them emails.... Same issue. Never called back or mailed back. Afraid to work and share my data with them.

Great app for address verification but needs batch scheduler

QAS has been working well for us but the huge missing piece is the ability to schedule a batch process. We import records every day and would love to be able to schedule a predefined batch process to run after these nightly imports.

Best address validation app out there

We began to look for a solution for all of our returned mail. Sometimes it can be hard to accurately record an address given by someone speaking over the phone. Not only did this product reduce the amount of mail we got back as 'return to sender' it also sped up our address capture process and brought peace of mind to our clients. The Interactive Typedown feature alone sold us on this product even though there are many more features worth using. The Typedown address input starts with zip code (easiest part to capture over the phone) and then fills in the city and state automatically and when you type in the street address it searches as you type for valid address. It even prompts when information like apartment or suite is missing. This adds professionalism and legitimacy to your business when dealing with people over the phone. It took a little time for our Salesforce users to learn and adjust to the new tool and to learn when it would do the trigger validation as well, but this training was well worth it. Experian will also setup a training webex and record the video to share with your users. We've been using the product for about 4-5 months and while I got questions from our SF users when we adopted the tool, I haven't heard anything about it in the last few months--which is a good thing for me! This product has been smoothly integrated with our company and I can't imagine going back.

Validates Addresses, but Needs Work

Good: 1. Matching and updating works as advertised. 2. Experian has included product management on my feedback This is the feedback I have provided to Experian: Functionality: 1. There is a hard-coded limit on errors when committing changes. That means if you are violating validation rules, the entire batch will fail. But you don't know WHY it failed, and you have to contact support, and they need to get an export from the developers, to see the errors. 2. You cannot copy a batch job, so if it fails or doesn't commit, or if you want to tweak slightly, you have to recreate from scratch. Hopefully you saved what you did, because... 3. You cannot see your filter criteria once a batch is run. 4. If you didn't export your records before committing, too late. You can't export once you commit. But does that really matter, because 5. You can't add the Salesforce ID to the export, anyway, and 6. When exporting, addresses are not in a usable format. Full address is in one field instead of separated into Street, City, State, etc. In addition, you 8. Cannot undo, and because you cannot export the Salesforce IDs, you can't even create your own 'undo' file. 9. There is a field that indicates when Experian has updated a record. But, if the address has been updated since then, the field does not reset, so you think it is validated, but it is not. You can pay more for 'real time' verification, and that will reset the field. UI issues: 1. When I click 'next', the screen does not go to the top of the page on the next screen, so sometimes I am looking at a blank screen 2. If the window is not maximized, the size of the window sometimes hides buttons, so it looks like you are stuck with no way to move forward Beware! You cannot have both your sandbox and prod environments open in the same browser. Experian gets very confused and will wipe out your configurations, and god only knows what else.

Perfect tool for Address Verification !!!

We just recently purchased the Batch for Salesforce tool and it is our third Experian Data Quality product we have purchased for our organization. We continue to use the EDQ products as they work great and save us time and money. EDQ support has been great and when I have had a problem they have been responsive and the majority of times have been able to resolve the issue with one call. Depending on your needs, you can do real time address verification at data entry or use a batch process. The Batch tool runs very quickly and we can clean thousands of addresses in a matter of minutes. Prospective students do not always give us their address written in the proper format and with the EDQ tools we are able to correct the address and contact a prospect we might not have otherwise been able to reach.

Awful Awful Awful - Stay Away

I regret that I am forced to write this, but my ongoing experience with QAS Experian has been one of misery. Anyone thinking of purchasing a very very expensive address, phone and email validation tool should steer clear of this app. You will save yourself a lot of time and money, not to mention headache, by doing business with a smaller company more responsive to customer needs. If I could undo this whole mess with a magic wand I wouldn't think twice. My org purchased the address, phone, and email validation suite on February 14 for $4,000. It took at least 2-3 weeks to sort out licensing issues and get address verification working. Phone verification IS STILL NOT WORKING, and email verification does not accurately detect invalid email addresses! Their technical support is almost worthless, and my so-called account reps need a lesson in communication: replying to customer emails would be a start; making good on promises would be much better. 3/26/2014: UPDATE 1) Phone Validation STILL NOT WORKING. On Mar 20, my account rep emailed me what appeared to be credentials for phone validation, which was supposedly received by a support person on Mar 13 but never sent to me. I immediately replied by email, asking where to use the credentials to gain access. I've not heard back since. 2) Address Validation in batch mode returned errors this morning when I tried to commit verified records. 3/26/2014: UPDATE 1) Address Validation in batch mode repaired. A validation rule was interfering with the batch process.

QAS: Easy to use and effective tool in streamlining address verification

The Experian QAS Tool within Salesforce has been a great added feature to our organization’s growing database. With data challenges around address verification and standardization it has helped us understand our future goals for direct mail cost savings and efficiency. Since using QAS we have noticed a trend of ensuring all addresses entered are verified, it also allows the user to confirm the correct address. Each user has benefited from the simple one click process and the ease of use has become second nature, it simply does it for you. Our organization has also had custom development executed by Experian; the scoping, project management and delivered product was executed with the utmost professionalism and I would definitely recommend Experian QAS as a product and company. If you are looking for a great tool that simply works and will save you cost down the road, QAS is your product.