“Data cleansing, data cleaning, datawash or data scrubbing is the process of detecting and correcting (or removing) corrupt or inaccurate records from a record set, table or database.
Used mainly in databases, the term refers to identifying incomplete, incorrect, inaccurate, irrelevant, parts of the data and then replacing, modifying, or deleting this dirty data.”(Wikipedia)
Maintaining excellent quality data is essential to ensure long-term customers relationships.
Why?
Simple.
We rely on data every day in some shape or form whether it’s the integrity of your customers addresses and details right down to ensuring that the invoices you email or post are accurate and sent to the correct addresses.
Data quality is important if senior management are to take advantage of their customer data in a meaningful and productive way that gives intrinsic value to the company overall.
Data quality issues such as:
Data quality is essential if it is to add intrinsic value to the business.
- Accuracy
- Integrity
- Cleanliness
- Correctness
- Completeness
- Consistency
Are paramount for this purpose.
There is significant business value to be achieved by managing and ensuring your data is clean but all too often senior management find it difficult to justify a business case for data cleansing.
Consider the impact of the following to your business:-
- the cost to the business of processing errors
- manual trouble shooting
- incorrect or invalid invoice data
- deliveries/shipments to the wrong address or incorrectly post-coded items
- customer or supplier frustration when documents are incorrect or invalid and therefore cannot be processed in a timely manner.
You can now appreciate the importance of keeping your data clean and it is an important aspect of any ERP/CRM system as incomplete transactional data is like putting petrol in a diesel engine; it will grind to a halt very quickly.
Resulting in exceptions and bad business decisions based on incomplete or insufficient business data as well as increasing the cost and service levels associated with your customers and suppliers.
A lack of clear and up to date information has the potential to jeopardise those customer and supplier relationships you have worked hard to maintain and keep.
Customer information is forever changing. People leave, change department or retire.
On-going data cleansing will ensure compliance and consistency particularly when data from different databases are combined.
Data cleaning ensures that your client information is updated and verified in turn this means that your team reach the right people on the right telephone numbers or valid email addresses.
Customer information is forever changing people leave, move to another part of the company or retire and these changes need to be reflected in the database.
Identifying duplication and making sure opt-outs are not contacted are key to good database management.
Typically, a good clean database prepared for an email marketing campaign will reduce bounce-backs and the updated information then becomes a key business asset in that the more accurate the data is the more effective your sales and marketing efforts can be strategically targeted to your audience.
Companies that have multi-branch locations where staff are working with the same customers makes data cleansing even more intrinsically valuable for the business as incorrect customer records have the potential to be damaging for the business.
What are the benefits in outsourcing my data cleansing?
Low cost and low risk way to employ additional resources without increasing staffing levels
Experiment with new ideas without investment up front
Flexible resources when needed
Companies grow their businesses and more resources are needed to maintain accurate database(s); data cleansing is a necessary business function that can be outsourced seamlessly which helps you maintain your business critical information at a high quality.
Article From: www.digitalprintmanagement.co.uk
