Understanding the Confidence Code
The Confidence Code indicates the strength of the similarity between your customer record and the D&B master reference record as a whole. The higher the Confidence Code, the stronger the similarity or match. The lower the Confidence Code, the less likely there is a match.
The two-digit Confidence Code is used to group similar quality matches. Many Match Grades relate to one (1) Confidence Code. Confidence Codes are used to aid users in the evaluation of match results and for creating autodecisioning rules. All Match Grades are mapped to one of the 10 Confidence Codes, with the highest/best matches categorized as 10 and non-matches categorized as 00.
Example of a Confidence Code Determined from the Match Grade
Assume that the Match Grade returned for a candidate is the code BAAFAZB. This indicates that the company name and telephone number were somewhat similar, the street number, street name, state were strongly similar, the city had no similarity, and the PO box number was missing. For this string, BAAFAZB, the Confidence Code is 5.
| Scoring Order | Field | Match Grade Code | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Company Name | B | Somewhat similar |
| 2 | Street Number | A | Strongly similar |
| 3 | Street Name | A | Strongly similar |
| 4 | City Name/Zip Code | F | No match. |
| 5 | State/Province | A | Strongly similar |
| 6 | PO Box Number | Z | Missing |
| 7 | Telephone Number | B | Somewhat similar |
| 8 | Secondary Address | not used |
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