CRM Data – Don’t Let Dirty Data Ruin a Good CRM
A good CRM system that is easy to use consolidates and secures your critical records and centralizes access for all authorized users. It discourages users from storing customer and prospect information in multiple files and locations. But you’ll only reap these benefits if your CRM data is clean and well maintained.
When migrating data into your CRM system, it’s critical that you take steps to avoid importing bad data. As the saying goes, Garbage In, Garbage Out. And bad data yields more than poor results. It also comes with a steep price tag, as these two Gartner studies demonstrate:
In a 2009 report, Organizations Perceive Significant Cost Impact From Data Quality Issues, Gartner found that poor data quality costs businesses more than $8 million annually.
According to the 2011 study, Measuring the Business Value of Data Quality, Gartner reported that bad data is the reason that 40% of all business initiatives fail.
Bad data is the reason 40% of all business initiatives fail. – Tweet This
Because of concerns about incomplete and inaccurate data, one of the questions we receive most frequently is how to import data into Claritysoft CRM.
Defining Bad Data
Bad CRM data can take several forms, including:
Incorrect data — While some inaccuracies are the result of data entry errors, it’s also true that contact information ages quickly as people change jobs, move to new locations or receive promotions.
Inactive accounts — Salespeople hate to give up on a prospect and will carry dead contact records among their active accounts for six months to a year—without any progress to report.
Missing data — Sometimes a contact record may simply be incomplete.
Duplicate records — Having responded to multiple marketing campaigns or spoken with more than one sales rep, prospects may be entered into your files more than once.
Regardless the form, bad data can spawn a host of harmful results. It can lead senior executives to make inaccurate business forecasts and bad business decisions. When faced with unreliable CRM data, frustrated users are apt to revert to their old habits — using spreadsheets or manual recordkeeping.
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Taking Steps to Clean Data
If you are transitioning to your first CRM system, you’re probably working with Excel spreadsheets. You’ll need to export data as CSV (Comma Separated Values) files. Also, it’s less expensive to clean and fix data prior to importing into CRM:
Match and merge — Consolidate CSV files, and then cross reference duplicate records to ensure you don’t lose information that may have been entered into one record and not the other.
Manually check — While software programs and third-party services can help with data validation, you may still need to check records manually.
De-dupe — Once you match and merge, remove duplicate records.
Avoid data corruption during import — Do a small test import (about 10 or 20 records) to ensure that data are loading into the correct fields and that zip codes are formatting correctly.
To maintain data integrity going forward, your CRM administrator needs to establish a data management plan and enforce compliance. Training users will help ensure complete and accurate data entry.
Implementing Claritysoft Quick Start Program
Whether you are implementing your first CRM system or moving from an older CRM system to Claritysoft CRM, our Quick Start Program helps ensure your successful transition. When you choose Claritysoft CRM, you and your employees automatically receive five hours of personal consultation, support, and training. Here’s what you can expect:
Meet Your Client Services Agent: During the initial call, your service agent will discuss the QuickStart Guide — your personal blueprint for customizing and implementing Claritysoft CRM to best meet your business needs.
Prepare for Your QuickStart Consult Call: After you and your team fill out the QuickStart Implementation Guide and answer all the questions, your service agent will schedule a follow-up call (about 45 minutes) to discuss your implementation plan and make suggestions.
Implement your Claritysoft CRM: Your services agent will walk you through every stage of installation and customization and will make sure you import your data correctly.
Participate in Training: Your team receives a personal, kick-off training session, and all users are invited to attend weekly, live online training workshops that range from basic to advanced skills.
With less than 10 hours of assistance and training, 95% of our customers are up and running. If you want to purchase extra help — whether assistance with customization, additional training, data extraction or data cleanup — let us know. We have the skills and support staff to help.
With clean CRM data and robust support and training, we help ensure you’re your transition to Claritysoft CRM is a success.
