Best practices for retaining "old" data (e.g. former emails)

John LaRose

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some feedback on the usefulness of retaining "old" data, specifically in regard to former email address. For instance, if John Doe lets us know he has a new email address that is replacing his old email, would you retain that old email address?

My first instinct is to keep most everything (old addresses, old emails, etc.). Of course that entails more data entry work and can lead to cluttered records.

Can anyone recommend some documented best practices? I did some searching but came up empty.

Thanks.

John

JoAnn Strommen

John LaRose:

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some feedback on the usefulness of retaining "old" data, specifically in regard to former email address. For instance, if John Doe lets us know he has a new email address that is replacing his old email, would you retain that old email address?

My first instinct is to keep most everything (old addresses, old emails, etc.). Of course that entails more data entry work and can lead to cluttered records.

Can anyone recommend some documented best practices? I did some searching but came up empty.

Thanks.

John

If the phone/email data fields could record a bit more info it would be easier (date from/date to/source and abiltiy to sort).

We do keep old email addresses with type of 'former email'.  When the constituent changes it I figure info I'm getting is valid.  However when I get data from campaigners or other sources sometimes it's not valid.  The history can prevent valid email from being replaced with the former email.  Sometimes both emails may be valid but constituent has preference.  As we enter more data like this I can see need for more email types on each record: home/work/former home/former work/invalid... 

I think best practice depends on accuracy of your data entry people.  If you do not keep former email address on record is it likely to appear and be re-entered by someone thinking it's still valid. Do you use email finder or a source that may take some time to get updated? 

I agree having old address data is helpful but records can get cluttered.

Just my 2 cents...

John LaRose

JoAnn Strommen:

If the phone/email data fields could record a bit more info it would be easier (date from/date to/source and abiltiy to sort).

We do keep old email addresses with type of 'former email'.  When the constituent changes it I figure info I'm getting is valid.  However when I get data from campaigners or other sources sometimes it's not valid.  The history can prevent valid email from being replaced with the former email.  Sometimes both emails may be valid but constituent has preference.  As we enter more data like this I can see need for more email types on each record: home/work/former home/former work/invalid... 

I think best practice depends on accuracy of your data entry people.  If you do not keep former email address on record is it likely to appear and be re-entered by someone thinking it's still valid. Do you use email finder or a source that may take some time to get updated? 

I agree having old address data is helpful but records can get cluttered.

Just my 2 cents...

Thanks for the response JoAnn. I hadn't thought too much about a former email reappearing and potentially overwriting a current and accurate email, but it's definitely possible, especially if we decide to acquire lists. As of now, we get most of our updated emails directly from constituents, so we can be pretty sure the new emails are valid and the old emails outdated, but if we ever get new constituents from a third party or a merger or something else like that, having a record of former email would certainly be helpful. Thanks for getting my wheels turning on this.

Laura Caswell

John LaRose:

Thanks for the response JoAnn. I hadn't thought too much about a former email reappearing and potentially overwriting a current and accurate email, but it's definitely possible, especially if we decide to acquire lists. As of now, we get most of our updated emails directly from constituents, so we can be pretty sure the new emails are valid and the old emails outdated, but if we ever get new constituents from a third party or a merger or something else like that, having a record of former email would certainly be helpful. Thanks for getting my wheels turning on this.

 HI John,

 One other thing to think about in terms of "old" data. We sometimes run into issues where a volunteer or committee member will insist that they have the correct email address for Jane Doe (homecomingqueen@almamater.edu) and the one we gave them (jdoe@something.com) is flat out wrong ("I know she would NEVER change her email address!") even though Jane gave us "jdoe@something.com" last week. If we didn't have the "homecomingqueen" address marked as former, we'd overwrite the "good" email address with the "bad" one. The same thing happens with mailing addresses and phone numbers. As part of our office procedures, anyone in the office updating an mailing address, email or phone number is supposed to write a note indicating where the updated info came from.

 My 2 cents,

laura

 

 

 

Candace Chesler

John LaRose:

Thanks for the response JoAnn. I hadn't thought too much about a former email reappearing and potentially overwriting a current and accurate email, but it's definitely possible, especially if we decide to acquire lists. As of now, we get most of our updated emails directly from constituents, so we can be pretty sure the new emails are valid and the old emails outdated, but if we ever get new constituents from a third party or a merger or something else like that, having a record of former email would certainly be helpful. Thanks for getting my wheels turning on this.

We also have a phone type of "former email" for retaining this information.  My one exception is when the business email address changes - I don't maintain the previous email in that case.