5 Ways Having Cleaner Data Can Benefit Your Business
Digital transformation and the exponential rise in data volumes are forcing businesses to rethink how they manage their data and use it for strategic purposes.
Many critical tasks such as lead generation, lead management, data management and analytics are dependent upon having clean, consistent and accurate data which have an impact on marketing, reporting, employee workflows and many other critical functions of everyday business activity.
Understanding the value and implications of clean, quality data and the role it plays in the daily operations of your business is essential to its survival and competitive differentiation.
Here are five ways having cleaner data can positively impact your business.
Savings: Time, Money, and Resources
Organizations can look to data cleansing as a solution that helps them to save costs, time and resources.
Many organizations are turning to AI to help automate and support data management initiatives, such as improving data cleansing which eliminates issues such as data that is duplicated, outdated, inaccurate, formatted incorrectly, or missing.
This helps keep records and systems organized and saves employees the time of having to shuffle through data and find the information they need, which in turn frees up employees to concentrate on more critical, creative and problem solving projects. For example, sales teams aren’t chasing duplicate leads, or talking to the wrong customer when trying to offer a new product or service.
Not to mention, the investments businesses make in data storage, such as with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, can cost more when data duplication makes database sizes much larger. Also marketing automation tools aren’t consistent because data is missing or inaccurate.
Better Decision Making
Analytics are transforming the way businesses operate and organizations need clean, quality data to enhance analytics. This can unlock growth opportunities, improve trend recognition, and help to anticipate market dynamics.
For example, sales representatives struggle with lead quality as a result of duplicate data and need to improve lower sales engagement with “ready to work” sales leads.
Organizations need to allocate the right resources to improve specific strategies, like using quality data to improve forecasting based on real world outcomes. According to Gartner, quality data creates better leads, an enhanced understanding of the customer, and improves customer relationships. Data and analytics leaders need to focus on data quality as a driver for competitive advantage.
Successful organizations implement data quality profiling in order to examine data and routinely identify data quality issues that need to be addressed. Data cleansing helps to address these issues that come up during data quality profiling, so that any errors in data can be fixed and businesses can continue to drive improvements, plans, and meet objectives.
Multipurpose Your Information
Data cleansing helps define where your business currently is within its stages of development.
With clean data, businesses are able to repurpose data in a scalable and efficient way that enhances opportunities for:
- Launching new products/services
- Creating new marketing ventures to reach your target audience more effectively
- Enhance talent acquisition, training, and skilling
Data cleansing drives consumer acquisition because B2B organizations can take advantage of different income avenues and redefine current spaces the organization is operating. For example, organizations can assess value opportunities when they want to create synergy between sales and marketing when leads are not being escalated or routed properly.
Effective Sales Pipeline
Sales pipelines are a visual display of a company’s prospects in the sales process.
Lead generation and sales pipelines both work hand in hand. The convenience of having clean data eliminates the frustrations of spending time and money sifting through leads that may have incorrect information and outdated consumer preferences.
Leads can often be delayed which result in missed sales opportunities as it takes too much time to manually fix assignment and routing rules.
Prospecting, lead qualification, proposals, and contract signing processes are more efficient and organized with clean data that’s reliable and consistent. It makes it easier to align sales teams goals in CRM systems, and monitor each stage of the sales pipeline so that leads can be nurtured and closed.
Minimize Compliance Risks
Each business owner should always remember that one of the most important things that they can do is protect themselves against any risk.
As data regulations and requirements evolve such as with the General Data Privacy Act (GDPR) or California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), businesses have a responsibility to protect consumer data and privacy such as with personally identifiable information or location tracking data.
Minimizing compliance risks allows for businesses to keep tabs on customer contact permissions and ensures those who have opted out of communications for example, have those settings remain intact.
Clean data helps to keep track of consumer preferences and all of their data, as customers are more intentional about what they want to share with a company.
Not only will clean data minimize risks, or potential penalties and fines to businesses, but this will also help to improve trust with customers, especially in industries such as healthcare and financial services where secure data is essential.
Final Thoughts
Businesses encounter many challenges when they manage massive volumes of data, and having clean, consistent data is the first step towards improving data quality and management solutions for organizations across industries.
Data is an integral part of consumer lives, as businesses use data to improve products, services and personalization.
Clean quality data can improve data management so that organizations and employees can focus on sales outreach, customer engagement strategies, and enhancing sales operations.
Clean data removes inconsistencies and errors in data, so that companies and employees can focus on core functions and improve the customer experience.
For more information about data cleansing and improving lead generation, contact Lead Angel.