When customer records are loaded into the database, Ascent360 employs a thorough sanitation, matching, and de-duplication process to determine a “Golden Record” for each individual. This article will help you understand which records Ascent360 will incorporate into the database and which records it will not.
What Constitutes an Individual?
Each individual in the Ascent360 database is assigned a unique individual ID, called the Ascent360ID. An individual is defined by some combination of the following fields:
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Most customer records that are loaded to the database will be missing many of the above fields. In general, a customer record will be loaded to the database if it is contactable in some form and includes data that can be used for marketing purposes.
Use Cases, Examples, and Exceptions for Creating an Individual
- A record with a First Name or Last Name only will be skipped.
- Example: An incoming transaction record is attributed to “John Smith” in the source system. This customer record (and its associated transaction information) will be skipped because Ascent360 will not be able to reliably match this record to another at some point in the future. Even if another “John Smith” with a full email comes in, we cannot safely match the first record to subsequent records.
- Ascent360 will load records that only consist of an email address.
- Example: An incoming customer record has an email address “jsmith@ascent360.com” – this record will be loaded to the database. If another record with the name “John Smith” and the same email comes through at a later point, Ascent360 will match and consolidate these records based on the shared data point.
- By default, Ascent360 will not load records that only consist of phone data.
- There are about 150 combinations of contact information that result in Ascent360 creating an individual in the database.
- Two individuals can have the same email address, the same phone number or the same physical address.
Below is an example of two distinct individuals in the database that share the same email address, postal address, and phone number. Two common explanations for distinct individuals sharing data are:
- Family members or roommates share a postal address
- Parents may use their personal email address to sign their child up for activities (such as a ski lesson). The child may be in the database as a separate individual with the same email address as the parent (child records with a known age under 16 years old will be automatically unsubscribed).
| Ascent360 ID | Name | Address | Phone | |
| 12345672 | Susan Johnson | 123 Main Street, Golden Colorado | sjohnson@ascent360.com | 303-555-1212 |
| 54321543 | Ted Johnson | 123 Main Street, Golden Colorado | sjohnson@ascent360.com | 303-555-1212 |
Below is an example of a few individuals with different amounts of information:
| Type | Ascent360 ID | Name | Address | Phone | |
| Email Only | 12345672 | sjohnson@ascent360.com | |||
| Name + Phone | 54321543 | Bob Simpson | 303-555-1212 | ||
| Name + Address | 543958382 | Tom Johnson | 456 Elm Street, Denver CO 84834 | ||
| Phone Only | 805-555-1212 | ||||
| Email + Zip | 91362 | ttoms@ascent360.com |
The sanitation and matching process from your source system to the Ascent360 database inevitably includes some amount of “loss” that can be attributed to the overall data quality and capture of your source system. We encourage you to regularly revisit your data collection practices to ensure that your source system data upstream is successfully finding its way to Ascent360 downstream.
For additional questions, please contact support at support@ascent360.com
