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Get a Grip on Your CRM Data: 7 Steps to Improve Data Quality – Part 2

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There is a simple methodology for achieving good data quality in your CRM system. By following these additional steps, you will improve your data and your marketing and business development outcomes.

4. Design for Simplicity

Develop your CRM solution to ensure the consistency and completeness of your data. Help your users input good data by including features such as pre-defined drop-down menus, triggers to prevent the creation of duplicate records and completeness and validity checks that can be applied to ensure nothing is missed. Make it simple and you will save time and effort while building a base of clean, correct and complete data.

5. Track Data Performance 

CRM data is often used for email marketing, and your campaign results are only as good as the quality of the contact data in your CRM. By tracking returned or bounced emails from your email campaigns, you can quickly identify contact records that need updating, allowing you to monitor the quality of your data and improve upon it. As an added benefit, you can track key contacts who may have changed jobs or roles and share this information with your users, so that they can keep track of them or reach out to them in their new roles.

6. Use Data Quality Tools

To achieve your data quality goals, you need to be able to easily manage, maintain, clean and segment your data. If you have a large amount of contact data, as most firms do, there are various automated data quality tools and processes that can quickly, easily and inexpensively help you ensure that your CRM data is duplicate free and up-to-date. Using data quality tools will not only give you greater control of your data, but they can also help you extract key pieces of information you may need.

7. The Final Step – Get Good People

Good CRM data quality requires good people.  It’s most important that all employees who input, access, manipulate and update CRM records understand data management.  There is simply no substitute for dedicated, well-trained professionals to manage your most valuable asset. In fact, many organizations have a dedicated go-to data person or “data steward.” Ideally this individual is a skilled researcher who is intimately familiar with your CRM system, data and processes. They should run periodic checks of the system and data quality, identify issues, merge duplicates, enhance contact information, improve workflows and help get your data clean, correct and complete. If your organization doesn’t need or want to bring on a more staff members, outsourced data quality professional resources can be acquired easily and often less expensively than hiring an internal person.

Once you have completed all seven success steps,  you will be on your way to better data.

 

Read Part 1 – Get a Grip on Your CRM Data: 7 Steps to Improve Data Quality.

 

Chris Fritsch is a Business Development Technology Success Consultant and the Founder of CLIENTSFirst Consulting For more than 10 years, the CLIENTSFirst team of almost 100 consultants and experienced professionals has been helping law firms and other organizations successfully select and implement marketing and business development technology to maximize value, adoption and return on investment. If you need help achieving CRM Success, please contact us at 404-249-9914 or Info@CLIENTSFirstConsulting.com.

 

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