Unverified Data: The Hidden Virus In Your CRM
Melissa IN Team | CRM, Data Quality, India |
Like viruses, poor-quality data can stay hidden until the damage is done. According to recent research, poor data quality can cost organizations an average of $15 million each year. The longer poor-quality data stays in your system, the higher the losses attributed to it.
Consider this example – a typographic error in entering customer records leads to Mr. Jones’s email address being noted as jonse@gmail.com instead of jones@gmail.com. As a result, not only will newsletters and product launch emailers bounce back, he will not receive order confirmation emails. This could have a negative impact on his shopping experience and, in turn, build a poor brand image.
The good news is that just as the risk from viruses and malware can be reduced with the right anti-virus software, the damage caused by poor-quality data can be minimized by verification tools. Verifying data can benefit an organization in many ways.
Build Lasting Relationships
Customers who have had long-term relationships with an organization can be their biggest assets. Loyal customers are not only more likely to place repeat orders, they are more likely to give positive reviews and referrals and more likely to forgive the odd late mistake in their order.
Customer relationships are built on customer service. A study showed that 33% of customers may consider switching from one brand to another after a single instance of poor customer service. This is where the quality of your database becomes important. If you have the wrong name on file, your customer service agents may address the customer by the wrong name. Worse, mistaking the order of digits in a house number can delay order delivery considerably.
Using a data verification tool keeps such erroneous data at bay and lowers the impact it can have. Verifying a customer’s address and contact details ensures deliverability. On-time deliveries keep customers happy and, in turn, loyal to the brand.
Get Reliable Data-Driven Insights
Where should a company open a new branch? Would a new product be better received in red or green? What kind of products should you recommend to a customer? These are just a few of the many questions a company can use data to answer. However, the efficacy of decisions based on data is dependent not just on the availability of data but on the quality of data.
For example, let’s say the data shows 10 dresses being sold in city A and 8 dresses being sold in city B. It would indicate city A is a more profitable location for a new branch. But, the records from city A are duplicated and only 5 dresses were sold in reality. Thus, rather than what the data appears to show, it would be more profitable to start a new store in city B.
Data verification tools not only validate data but also keep records from being duplicated and hence improve the overall quality of a database. As the quality of data improves, so does the reliability of the insights derived from it. Studies have shown that companies dependent on data-driven strategies have 6% higher profits.
Make Operations Timely And Cost-Effective
The quality of data also plays an important role in operational efficiency. If you don’t have the right address for a customer, an order may not be delivered. The customer will be upset and the company may have to bear additional shipping costs. Costs could increase by as much as 3 times the original estimate. In the case of perishable merchandise, the back-and-forth transportation may spoil the merchandise and make it unusable.
Verifying data can keep such issues from arising and streamline operations. It saves money and time.
Fraud Protection
Unverified data also makes a database susceptible to fraud. For example, let’s say a customer changed their mobile number but the database still has the old number. A fraudster may use this invalid number to steal the customer’s identity and commit fraud through your company or hack into the database.
Poor quality data increases the risk of data breaches and with it, puts the company at risk of financial losses, a poor brand image and the loss of their customer’s trust.
Verifying data helps identify and remove or correct inaccurate and invalid data so that it becomes harder for fraudsters to misuse it.
In Conclusion
It is only when data about customers is verified as accurate, valid and unique that it can be useful to the organization. Doing so manually is next to impossible. If you are serious about improving your data quality, you need a data verification tool. From customer identities to their contact details, a verification tool can validate the data entering your system as well as the existing data. As the quality of your database improves, so will the quality of customer service and your company image.