As the temperatures rise and the hours of sunlight get longer, you’re probably thinking of scheduling a spring cleaning. Now is the perfect time to do so – but with your data! You won’t need a feather duster or vacuum cleaner, but you will walk away with renewed clarity about the status of your data. Data cleanliness refers to valid, up-to-date information that you have saved in your CRM. This means all names, phone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, etc. are accurate and still in use by the person they belong to. As we collect data or contacts over time, life happens, job changes happen, marriages with a name change happen. Then we’re stuck with an outdated phone number, or your primary contact for a client has since moved to a new position and you’re out of luck.
The practice of data cleanliness is not simple. While we wish we could Marie Kondo our records every few months, no one has really figured out a fool-proof system across the board. That’s why it’s best to be proactive about it sooner rather than later, when all of our emails are bouncing and you have no way of finding the updated email addresses. Example: many people within education fields transfer to new schools, universities, or counties. When they start a new position, they’re assigned a new email address, but any website login affiliated with their old email address will now be out of date.
To keep your data on a cleaning schedule, pick an annual date of analyzing. Pull reports for records, contacts, and opportunities from the last 365 days that haven’t been closed or used. Comb through the open opportunities and close them out, delete out any abandoned leads, and make sure contact information is accurate. Yes, this is not a task that you can automate to save time. But dedicating one day to deep clean your data will prevent a backlog of inaccurate information down the line.
Utilizing a marketing cloud service that allows you to sync contacts with your CRM and reach out to users to update their information within your system is a great way to tidy up data. Sending out an annual email blast along the lines of “Hey! Please verify that your account information is correct” allows your customers or users to get in on the process. You can even require them to verify their information upon a login attempt before gaining access. While this does require trust on behalf of the user, it is something you could schedule as an automated trigger after a user has been in your system for 1 year or whichever time frame you prefer.
Happy data spring cleaning!
