Provided by Experian Business Credit Services
We know how frustrating it is when you inquire on a company
and receive a No Record, or incur multiple LOS No Records trying to locate a
business. Studies indicate that 68% of No Records are related to inquiry
errors. In other words, we have information on the company you want … but your
inquiry method prevents our system from making the match.
The following 16 tips will help you search Experian’s
database of more than 10 million businesses and:
* Improve your hit rate
* Get more usage from your subscription
* Reduce your No Record charges
* Reduce LOS (List of Similars) Duplication
* Increase productivity
These 16 tips are based on Experian’s studies of the most
commonly made subscriber input errors. In almost every instance listed, the
subscriber was simply trying to provide more information to improve the search.
In actuality, they prevented the system from making a match to the company desired.
If you enter a proprietor's personal name at the Company
prompt, Experian searches for business credit data on a company for which the
proprietor's personal name is part of the business name (e.g., Bob Jones
Auto, professionals such as doctors, certified public accountants, professional
consultants, etc.).
Otherwise, entering personal names through the Business
Profile option will most likely result in a No Record or a Duplicate LOS.
Inquiries on companies that read "Owner of..." or "Proprietor
of..." also will result in a No Record or LOS Duplication because the
Experian search system interprets the words "Owner of" as part of the
official name of the company.
If you want to access an SBAR report on a proprietor, you
must enter that personal name via the SBAR menu option, after first attempting
to access a Business Profile on the business.
Don’t enter the owner's name along with the business name
(e.g., Doug Smith of Western Tile). This will most likely result in a No Record
or LOS Duplications.
Don’t enter professional designations. The Experian search
system recognizes professional designations as extraneous words (e.g., Dr.,
Ph.D., CPA, D.D.S.), and therefore does not use them when searching for an
entity. Your inquiry for Michael Sutton will deliver the same result as your
inquiry for Dr. Michael Sutton or Doctor Michael Sutton. In this instance,
simply entering the personal name through the Business Profile option is
correct.
Don’t enter organizational designations. Like professional
designations, organizational designations (e.g., Company, Corporation and
Incorporated) are so common that they are not used in our search processes and
can be left off of your inquiry entirely. Using variations of these words when
searching for a company (e.g., separate inquiries for Experian, Experian Inc.,
Experian Incorporated) will give you the same search result, and will likely
cause LOS Duplication (or, if you were unable to locate the original company,
additional No Records).
When you know a business is operating under more than one
name (e.g., Jones Supply DBA Smith Company, or Dell Associates AKA Image Bank),
your inquiry will be more productive when you limit it to one of the two
company names. Entering multiple company names for a single search will likely
result in a No Record, or cause LOS Duplication.
Don’t enter city and state unless they are part of
the company name (e.g., Clark Equipment of Joliet, IL). Otherwise, your inquiry
will likely result in a No Record, or cause LOS Duplication.
Incorrect or improper abbreviations (e.g., Cmpny, Dstrbtrs,
etc.) will likely result in No Records or cause LOS Duplication.
Changing a word from plural to singular (e.g., Cole Electronics
to Cole Electronic) - or vice versa - in an attempt to improve the search will
like result in a No Records or cause LOS Duplication.
Adjusting periods or other punctuation (e.g., W.R. Grace to
W. R. Grace or WR Grace) in an attempt to improve the search will like result
in a No Record, or cause LOS Duplication.
Adjusting the way initials are inputted (e.g., inputting
International Communications Corporation (ICC) either with or without the
parentheses) in an attempt to improve the search will likely result in a No
Record, or cause LOS Duplication.
Adding professional organization affiliations to the inquiry
(e.g., inputting a professional's name with an acronym such as Steven Taylor
AIA for American Institute of Architects) will likely result in a No Record or
cause LOS Duplication.
Adding the type of business, occupation or professional's
name (e.g., Steve Taylor Attorney At Law, or Bob Jones General Contractor) will
likely result in a No Record or cause LOS Duplication.
Inputting an inquiry on multiple professionals who are
located at the same office (e.g., Law Offices of Steven Taylor and Bob Jones,
or Doctors Steven Taylor & Bob Jones) will like result in a No Record or
cause LOS Duplication. Enter each professional into the report request option
individually, using the professional's personal name only.
Always separate each word of the company name with a space
(e.g., Steel Plating Company instead of SteelPlatingCompany). Running words
together will likely result in a No Record or cause LOS Duplication.
Take care to ensure the company name is properly spelled
(e.g., Bob Joones Auto instead of Bob Jones Auto), and that words are not
truncated. These errors will likely result in No Records or cause LOS
Duplication.
If the system is unable to retrieve the business you
inquired upon, repeating the exact same inquiry or near exact inquiry will
likely result in a No Record or cause LOS Duplication.
No Record: A
"No Record" refers to instances where you access the Experian system
is unable to deliver a report on the company requested.
LOS No
Record: An "LOS" or “List of Similars" is a list of
up to 24 companies with names similar to that of the company you requested
(e.g., Reliable Electrical Supply, Reliable Electronics, and Reliable Auto
Supply). As an Experian subscriber, you may select up to five companies from
this list for the price of one Experian Business Profile. An "LOS No
Record" occurs each time you receive an LOS but do not select any companies
from this list.
LOS
Duplication: "LOS Duplication" occurs when you enter
variations of your original inquiry, yet continue to receive the same List of
Similars. LOS Duplication can contribute to additional LOS No Record charges.