October 2021
Clean Up Your Act: 4 Simple Steps to Organise and Clean Your Data
When it comes to your sales data, the phrase quantity over quality should always come to mind. Nothing plugs up a sales pipeline quite like poor quality data management. Whether it’s data duplicates, outdated information and incorrect data as a result of human error, bad data can slow your business down and prove costly in the long run.
So how can you clean up your act when it comes to data? The Lunar Team has the answers for you, with these four simple steps to organise and clean your data.
1. Let’s Look at your Data
You’ll want to start your clean-up process with a data analysis session. Understanding the situation will help you figure out where you need to focus your efforts when sorting out your data.
- How is your data duplicate situation?
- Where is your data coming from?
- What’s causing any potential duplicates?
- How is the validity of your data?
Answering all of these questions will help you understand where to go from here, and more importantly what you need to do to prevent this in future. A bespoke CRM solution will help with this analysis with a detailed data analysis dashboard built with your needs and specifications in mind. Easily spot duplicates and where they came from, when they were created and figure out which data, if any, is missing.
2. Let’s Get Cleaning
Dive right with the next step, cleaning up your database. The clean-up operation can require many different approaches, as many as there are different database issues. With a bespoke CRM solution you have all the tools you need for this operation at your disposal.
The first stage is to track down the data duplicates we’ve mentioned. This will lay the groundwork for the remaining clean-up, a critical step that cannot be overlooked.
Next, you want to complete any missing data in your database. You may be wondering how that’s possible, but with your CRM solution’s automation you will be able to keep a handy record of where your data has come from and fill in any blanks such as e-mail domains, website information and more by cross-referencing with other contact data.
Finally you want to check the validity of your data. Is it in date? Does this organisation still exist, or has that client updated their information? Useless data will only serve to clog up your CRM system, so you’ll want a bespoke solution where you can decide the data validity rules and constraints.
3. Maintain Cleanliness
Nothing like doing a big clean only for something to make a mess of your hard work again. So you’ll want to keep on top of your data from here on out, to save time and money in the long run. With your bespoke CRM solution you’ll be able to automatically prevent data duplication, continually complete missing data by automatically keeping records on sales leads and set validation rules that will alert you to any useless or potentially incomplete data.
4. Get Enhanced
Finally, you want enhance your data as much as possible – your sales team will thank you. Save their time searching through external databases looking for additional contact information by ensuring your database has everything they need all in one place. Automated e-mail verification and other such steps can ensure your data is as accurate and up to date as possible.
These four simple steps will help you keep on top of your customer database, so that you can focus on growing your business and keeping your customers happy.
Ready to clean up your data with a bespoke CRM option? Get in touch to book a free demo with Lunar CRM, or find out more by exploring our website.