Don’t Let Data Decay Affect Your Growth: Everything You Need To Know To Get Rid of Data Decay
Your CRM system will offer you useful information on prospects, paying customers, vendors, and employees. CRM data decay is a significant issue that may lead to a reduction in sales and customer satisfaction, higher personnel turnover, and dissatisfaction amongst management and employees.
According to a study, CRM data quality issues have hampered 95% of survey respondents’ ability to utilize their CRM system successfully, and 44% of those polled said their organization lost more than 10% of yearly sales due to CRM data decay. Respondents expect their CRM data to degrade by 34% yearly unless major enhancements are made.
The quality and freshness of data are critical to the efficiency of a company’s CRM system. We’ll discuss data decay, its consequences, and solutions for reducing CRM data decay and prioritizing data quality.
For more information on how marketing operations will help you maintain data quality and prevent decay, read Marketing Operations: The Key to Business Growth.
What Causes Data Decay? Understanding the Key Factors Behind CRM Data Loss
Bad data usually causes data decay. Any old, inaccurate, duplicated, improperly structured, or missing information is considered bad data. There are several ways to end up with bad data in your CRM database, some of which are listed below.
- Outdated Data
- When you first collect information about a customer, future customer, or vendor, it might be accurate. However, after a while, the data may become incorrect. For example, people change jobs, phone numbers, and addresses. The demographic details of a company may change because of M&A, going out of business, change in location, etc. Here are a few statistics that can help you understand how common it is:
- Every two years, 40% of email users change their email addresses.
- Every year, 20% of postal addresses change.
- Every year, 18% of phone numbers change.
- Every year, 60% of employees change jobs inside their organization.
- Incorrect Formatting
Firmographic and demographic details like addresses, names, email addresses, and phone numbers can be captured in different ways. When data is captured online or offline, unfortunately, it is not entered the same way, which inevitably leads to inaccurate information being stored. Naming Conventions can help to avoid this issue.
- Data Is Entered Inaccurately
Users who fill out online forms may mistakenly enter incorrect information or provide incorrect details. Manual data entry might result in the same outcomes. For example, if a name is misspelled, it will be used in all marketing and sales communications.
- Duplicate Data
It is possible to wind up with duplicates when combining lists. You might also have the same individual added to various lead-generating newsletters or any form of nurturing program, resulting in their email being added to your list a number of times.
The Repercussions of Data Decay on Your Business
Data decay can severely hinder the growth of your business. Here are some of the most common consequences of data decay in your CRM.
- Loss of Customers: Data decay often leads to duplicate sales and marketing efforts. These unproductive efforts can cost the company customers.
- Miss Out on New Sales: Sales teams lose new sales due to poor quality CRM data. Degraded data reduces your capacity to convert leads successfully.
- Lost Revenue: Poor-quality CRM data can cost up to 10% or more of your annual revenue due to miscommunication and wasted time and resources.
- Increased Employee Turnover: Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service teams can only accomplish their tasks if CRM data is good, which leads to dissatisfaction and demotivation. As a result, if you do not invest in a CRM data-quality plan, you may lose talented people.
- Friction Between Teams: Poor-quality CRM data can harm employee relationships. For example, CRM data decay causes friction between marketing and sales departments.
Human element and technology play a vital role in minimising these repercussions and ensuring that CRM information remains accurate and valuable to business growth.
Best Practices for Reducing Data Decay: Steps to Protect Your CRM Data Quality
As marketing and sales initiatives are data-driven, boosting your database’s quality will enhance your marketing and sales efforts’ success. Clean CRM data will help your teams spend more time connecting with the right audience rather than designing emails that bounce back, contacting potential customers by the incorrect name, or sending mailings to the incorrect address. Here’s how you can get rid of data decay.
- Create A Strong Data Hygiene Strategy
Adding frequent data hygiene checks as a part of a routine is the most evident technique to keep your database fresh and updated. This procedure entails the following steps:
- Checking for changes to existing data
- Getting rid of duplicate contacts
- Validating new contacts
- Completing any missing information
All of this can be done automatically using dynamic data tools that can update your information in real-time, eliminating the need for human inspections.
Despite the fact that data hygiene inspections are typically delegated to a certain department (sales, marketing, or IT), ensure that everyone in the business is aware of data hygiene policies. Collaboration among teams substantially contributes to combating data deterioration and fostering a data-driven culture inside the firm.
The collaboration between marketing and demand generation will ensure that your CRM data is accurate.
- Get Confirmed Opt-Ins
- Opt-in confirmation is another method of combating data decay. It is used to check that your subscribers completed the registration process by providing the right email address. When new users enter their information, they will receive a confirmation email to complete the signing up with valid information.
- Consider Backing Up Your Data
- Data decay can also occur as a result of hardware failure. The repercussions of a severely corrupt dataset are dire. A startling 94% of businesses that suffer a catastrophic data loss never return to normal operations.
- To limit the chance of lost input and assure disaster recovery, save your data in the cloud securely, just as you would with essential information on your phone or laptop. Cloud storage is the safest and most effective method of data backup, and you may select from several forms of cloud storage based on your needs and requirements. However, keep in mind to safeguard your data access and protect it from external cyberattacks.
- Let The Professionals Handle Data cleaning.
- Outsourcing to a third party can save you time and allow you to focus on what is most important to your business! As part of our data decay management services, we offer multiple features, including:
- Getting rid of duplicate records and incorrect details
- Removing outdated data entries— both at the contact and the company level
- Ensuring that you connect with the right people and the accounts
- Owing correct data for your marketing and sales, customer service, and hiring strategies
Modern CRM tools and automation play a pivotal role in combating data decay.
- Platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce offer features that help to prevent data decay. Data cleansing and data enrichment are included in these services.
- Automation and AI-powered tools: Automation automates the data correction, validation, and identification processes. AI tools can predict and identify potential data issues before they impact operations.
- Data validation tools: By using data validation software you can verify that data is accurate.
A Guide for Implementing a Program to Improve Data Quality
Establishing a data quality program involves:
Assessing the quality of current data: Assess your CRM’s current state to identify areas where you can improve.
Define Data Standards: Establish clear guidelines to ensure consistency in data input, formatting and maintenance.
Implementing Data Governance Policies: Create policies to outline ownership, access rights and accountability for data management.
Train your employees. Inform your employees about the importance to maintain data quality.
Use tools that facilitate the cleansing and enrichment of data.
Monitoring and improving data quality metrics. Adapt strategies to new challenges.
It’s important to know the importance of a Martech stack audit to ensure consistent data quality on all platforms. An audit of your martech stack can help identify gaps and inefficiencies within your data management process. This will ensure that you are using the best tools and platforms to support your efforts in improving data quality.
Resources for Data Decay Prevention: Selecting the Best CRM Tools to suit your Business
Selecting appropriate CRM tools is essential for effective data decay prevention.
- CRM Software Recommendations: Platforms such as Pipedrive and Zoho provide robust data management features suitable for all businesses.
- Enterprise-Level Tools vs. Cost-Effective Tool: Evaluate tools according to the size and needs of your organization to maximize return on investment.
- Data Enhancement Features: Choose CRM solutions with data enrichment capabilities to improve your data’s quality and completeness.
Addressing common data decay challenges requires:
- Errors in Data Entry: Validation tools and regular audits can be used to identify and correct errors.
- Manage Duplicate Entry Implement deduplication processes and tools to maintain a clean and accurate database.
- Standardize data entry formats to ensure consistency. Regularly conduct training sessions to ensure consistency across the organization.
Conclusion
Maintaining accurate and up-to-date CRM data is crucial for business growth. Clean data enhances customer relations, improves decision making, and increases revenue. Businesses can save money by investing in measures to improve data quality, such as automation, enrichment, and data cleansing. Businesses can minimize the impact of data degradation by using robust data management strategies and appropriate technologies.
To understand, how marketing operations support growth and drive business results, it is important to recognize the importance of efficient operations in providing clean, actionable information for marketing and sales.
Call to action: Assess your current data management methods today. Invest in strategies and tools that will ensure accuracy of data
