• by Jess Nelson , September 30, 2015

While email boasts a high ROI as an effective method of digital communication for companies of any size and industry, yet many still report severe issues with maintaining the integrity of their email databases, according to the Experian Data Quality reportreleased Tuesday.

The vast majority (92%) of companies face challenges when collecting customer email addresses, while 33% of respondents said they don’t know how faulty their email databases are.

They believe that at least 20% of their email database could be invalid or inaccurate.

The ability to focus on email database maintenance is dependent on company size and access to resources, with 40% of respondents in businesses with fewer than 25 employees stated that they do not maintain their email databases at all.

A severe consequence of incorrect data is issues with email deliverability.

A majority (73%) of companies have experienced email deliverability issues in the past year, including spam trap hits and inbox bounce backs.

Consequences of poor email deliverability include issues with communicating with subscribers (41%), poor customer service (24%), regulatory hurdles (22%), unnecessary costs (22%), customer complaints (20%), sender reputation problems (19%), and black listing (10%).

Some 15% of respondents said that a lack of data management and email deliverability issues resulted in loss revenue for their company.

When it comes to the retail industry, only 48% of companies are equipped to integrate and analyze data in a timely fashion, according to a recent study by Yes Lifecycle and Retail TouchPoints.

17% of retailers surveyed plan to make data integration and analysis a priority in the next 6-12 months, and 15% plan to acquire and aggregate more data about customers in the next 12-18 months.

When it comes to the types of customer data retailers already have on file, only 83% have the full name of their customers, followed by their phone number (76%), purchase history (69%), address (67%), and email (57%).

Only 18% of retailers have access to shopping preferences and other information such as birthdays, size or preferred color, and only one in ten (13%) have access to a customer’s browsing history (13%).