As the company grows, the amount of data it process also grows with it. And there comes a point when a data quality management needs to employ effective programs to make sure relevant and accurate data is processed even though the amount of data exceeds the expectation. And in such cases, incorrect or dirty data in the marketing database can be hazardous for any business as it can lead to huge loss of money, affect the revenue and contribute to possible loss of customers. Since marketing has become more customer centric and advanced, using more highly accurate and intelligent data becomes extremely critical than ever before to achieve desired results.
Having inaccurate or misleading information can lead to confusion, which is one of the main reasons of failure of CRM projects. Hence, in order to maintain a better customer relationship, proper data quality management is of utmost importance as it allows the management to make necessary decisions based on the relevant information on customers collected from different channels to fully understand their behavior. There are effective methods by which one can improve their data quality and contribute to increased revenue and satisfy customers. However, it must be done under strict supervision. Follow these below procedures to improve data quality.
8 Ways To Improve Data Quality and Increase Sales
1). Track and check data
Tracking data from different sources is the elementary step to improve data quality. There are many ways to do it. You can track returned mail along with email bounces as it can increase administrative work. Positive database cleansing or data validation service will further help improve the data in the CRM. Save the data in different fields and set benchmarks and accuracy goals.
2). Clean and append data
Before entering the data into CRM, correct the data by putting standards. It is easier when the client is engaged through the Internet or phone call. Data verification softwares also help in completing missing details. This ensures that the stored data is organized and in good shape. You can also include drop down menus or radio buttons to improve data consistency.
3). Correct spellings and mistakes
CRM software cannot spot spelling mistakes and you can’t trust other spell check softwares to identify and correct such errors. Put the data using drop down list to enforce repeated terms spellings. This can be very useful in filling titles, state, country, segmentation, lead status, areas of interests, departments, etc.
4). Integrate the data
Storing greater numbers of data in more than one system can lead to duplication of the data. The best to avoid this issue is to integrate all the systems so that the same data can’t be uploaded twice, making it easier to retrieve accurate information in the future. Today, many platforms such as Salesforce offers brilliant integration tools like Oracle and SAP that connects several systems together to provide a complete view of your customers.
5). Augment your data
In order to achieve data quality in the CRM, augmentation of data is a necessary step as it gives your sales department a better insight of the customers. This can help your sales representatives to make effective sales calls. Surveys and other related techniques will help you understand your customers’ behavior and comprehensive softwares such as AppExchange will aid you augment your data wisely.
6). Data monitoring
Data monitoring is as important a process as collecting and correcting data. It needs to be maintained well at every level. Data cleansing, creating reports and dashboard help management to monitor the data and make necessary changes, if required to improve data quality, which can be achieved by different tools.
7). Train users
Find your biggest obstacles and areas that are keeping you from reaching your target. Train users and assign them ownership to get rid of those obstacles and bring accuracy in the data.
8). Do regular checkups
In today’s frame of time, businesses have become mobile that causes the data to become outdated quickly. Regular checkups are required to make sure old data is refreshed and CRM performs at a high level.
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An inappropriate data is extremely dangerous for business and to maintain the quality of data, every company needs to perform the necessary steps to make sure the data is stored in a unique, organized and easily accessible manner. Only this way a company can make the most use of the data to enhance their sales and productivity by making all the vital and necessary decisions in time. With the help of certain technology and right set of mind, achieving data quality is not hard to accomplish.
Author Bio:
This article is written by William Hills. He is a professional technical writer with an experience of more than 5 years. He has written a variety of contents in past and now writing on social media, salesforce consulting partners, CRM solutions, search engine marketing, IT and business consulting services and many more topics.
