3 Best Practices for CRM Data Hygiene
The Why: Accurate business intelligence and information translates into making good business decisions. Inaccurate or incomplete forecasts and information pose a significant liability to companies when they have to rely on taking a stab in the dark, or worse, making decisions based off of inaccurate data.
The Tradeoff: Requiring accurate and up to date information from your sales department requires greater effort and time on their part. It usually requires a more in depth training than what may be provided in on-boarding. The case you have to make is that accurate information gives management a clearer picture of what is working and what isn't. A clearer picture means more money and commission in their bank accounts. Helping sales people understand the why in each step in your process is critical to data integrity.
1. Required versus Preferred Fields
A CRM administrator's natural instinct is to make ignored data fields required. While this may be a solution in some cases, it usually an indication of a larger problem. For example, say would you like to collect the cell phone numbers so that automated text messages can be sent out before an appointment. The natural instinct would be to make the cell phone field a required field before the record can be saved.
The above solution neglects practicality and the user experience completely. A customer may not feel comfortable giving out their cell phone number or the sales person may forget to ask for it. In either case, the user is forced to put in bad data to save the record. An appropriate solution would be to make the cell phone field a preferred field, highlighting the background of it yellow to remind the user of the importance.
2. Role Specific CRM Training: Keep it Simple, Stupid!
Because a CRM or ERP can span through different organization functions it is crucial to utilize different layout groups and profiles for these users. Determining the scope of each profile is very important to balance complexity, security, and accuracy of information. While on-boarding programs might help employees hit the ground running, role specific training is critical to create and preserve data integrity. Model your role specific training around different layout groups or profiles in your CRM.
3. Red Flag Reports
These reports can help recognize problem areas in data integrity for your organization. The two most telling reports to include are employee start date and employee role. If your company is moving the the right direction employees with more recent start dates will more hygienic data than employees with earlier start dates. Additionally, data check reports segmenting by role and territory can identify shortcomings by certain roles or departments.
