Your dashboards are cluttered, but chances are that there is something else wrong that makes the figures always come out inaccurate. So, before making an investment in data cleansing services, check out seven danger signs and see how clean data pays off.
What Are the 7 Signs Your CRM or Database Needs Data Cleansing?
Most teams realize the warning signs well before they find the root cause in their own records. So, look out for these seven warning signs, as each one is an indicator of deterioration that is getting progressively worse.
1. Duplicate Customer or Contact Records
Duplicate leads break down the transaction history into a number of accounts for the same individual. This means that the representative reaches out to one customer more than once, and this customer is counted more than once on reports. It is therefore imperative to be careful when merging data, as deleted data can never be recovered. Customers also pick up on the repeated effort very fast and lose interest in the company.
2. Outdated Contact Information
People move from one job to another, and also from one phone number or email address to another, all the time. Yet your CRM continues to display the same old information as if nothing had happened at all. Before you know it, you find your representatives wasting their calling efforts on disconnected phone numbers and leads long gone. However, professional data cleansing services can solve this problem by validating and updating your contact information periodically.
3. Incomplete or Missing Customer Data
Information that doesn’t contain any job title, company name, or telephone number will make all segments you create vulnerable. Lead scoring and lead routing, on the other hand, will not work since some crucial information is missing from the record. This is one of the reasons why salespeople spend precious sales time wondering whom to approach.
4. Inconsistent Data Formats and Naming
Some use VP of Sales, and some use Vice President of Sales. Also, there is inconsistency with respect to state abbreviations and dates. This means the filter will not pick up all the data, and even the same query results in different counts depending on the week. With clear naming conventions, you won’t have to worry about this.
5. Frequent Email Bounces and Invalid Contacts
Increasing rates of bounces indicate that your list consists of dead email addresses. In addition, persistent bounces negatively affect your sender reputation such that even quality emails will end up in the spam folder. Therefore, CRM data cleansing will help you remove these dead email addresses.
6. Poor Data Quality in Reports and Analytics
Forecasts are off due to duplication in the pipeline and old data concealing real buyers. In fact, the numbers give false impressions about the conversion rate, revenue forecasts, and performance of campaigns on all dashboards. Thus, executives do not rely on the reports anymore.
7. Increasing Errors in Sales and Marketing Workflows
Incorrect fields cause automations to email the wrong individual and distribute leads to the wrong representative. This results in your customers getting mixed signals from your various departments. Eventually, your team ends up creating their own spreadsheets because they don’t have faith in the system anymore. Correct fields ensure proper workflows and distribution to the right people.
How Can Data Cleansing Improve CRM and Database Performance?
A proper data cleaning process builds trust in your system more quickly than most people think possible. Professional data cleansing services will perform de-duping, validation, standardization, and enrichment without interfering with your normal operations.
- Deduplication provides accurate counts for contacts and ensures proper lead routing.
- Validation ensures that invalid email addresses and phone numbers are not used.
- Standardization ensures consistent filter and segmentation criteria and reporting.
- Enrichment provides missing title information, industry, and companies.
- Maintenance prevents the reappearance of previous mistakes during future cleanups.
Combined, these actions solve all data quality issues and provide each team with reliable data.
Conclusion
The reliability of your CRM system requires constant effort and not rescue operations here and there. Look for duplicate leads, outdated data, incomplete fields, and bounces, and react immediately. This will help avoid mistakes in the future and keep everyone using accurate and trusted information.
