The Melissa Identity Key (MIK) is an 11-digit digital key assigned to each individual in the U.S. Just like an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) identifies any book published, MIKs are a persistent, unique identifier for individuals that you can add to your database that can help you:
- Eliminate duplicate account information and improve record matching by searching for repeated MIKs
- Update addresses, emails and phone numbers to have the most up-to-date information on each customer, and access historic contact information
- Append elements that may be missing from your database such as income level, household size, level of education, etc.
Improve Customer Data Quality with Melissa Identity Key
Customer data quality is the key to customer satisfaction, retention, communication, compliance and accurate data analytics. Without proper customer data, your business could experience:
- Sensitive information being sent to incorrect addresses, putting you at risk of breaching compliance regulations
- Customer communication lags and delayed deliveries due to outdated information and returned mail
- Duplicate customer accounts, leading to customer frustration and disappointment
- Eroded business reputation from data inaccuracies and an increase in fraud, leading to low retention rates and a lack of new customers
MIK technology helps you avoid these costly errors and more by keeping your customer information up to date and accurate. The information stored on a MIK is updated as customers change their contact information, but the number stays the same, regardless of whether a customer moves, changes primary phone numbers, updates their email addresses, etc. This makes it easy to keep track of your customers while at the same time keeping your database clean, accurate, and up to date.
Use MIK to Overcome Common Contact Data Hurdles
First and last names that are identical but are two different people. A name with two separate email addresses but the rest of the contact information matches. A customer moves, but creates a second account instead of updating their already existing one.
These are all common contact data quality hurdles that businesses face every day. By adding MIK to your database, these difficulties are alleviated. Our proprietary engine takes data from many different sources and consolidates all the information about a person into one identifying number. This includes variations of names—for example, Elizabeth Smith could have signed up for an account with her full name and address, as Beth Smith in another database with a matching address, as Liz Smith in another that matched an email address, etc. And, for two customers with the same name, a separate MIK will differentiate them from one another.
Not only does a MIK consolidate variations of names, it also tracks old addresses, emails and phone numbers, linking them into one MIK. This way, you can merge accounts that may have outdated, duplicate or missing information to clean your account data and verify contact data is up to date.
A MIK also enriches the data in your system, providing demographic information for each individual that you can append into your system. These demographics include the following:
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Income Level
- Marital Status
- Presence of Children
- Household Size
- And More
A MIK will also return the Melissa Address Key (MAK) of the property that an individual is living at, giving you more information about their physical property. This opens a wealth of information that could help you with your mailing, marketing and mapping efforts, giving you a more comprehensive look at each of your customers.
The Benefits of MIK & Data Management
MIK numbers carry no PII, and as such they are ideal to share with outside vendors or partners that may not need the entirety of a customer’s file or history. Using MIKs also cuts down on storage, as less information needs to be stored or transferred with this customer identifier.
